Quirks in our Bloodlines
by Scarper Von Hyde
Summary: Project Bloodlines. A military-funded medical study on the quirkless, subjecting children to go through what even the most shadowy of government intelligence agencies would consider torture. Most people knew about the project, but only as a study on activating latent quirks. They didn't know the truth. The worst thing about Bloodlines wasn't the death toll. It was that it worked.
1. Chapter 1

Izuku hates what everyone thinks is his quirk. It's not a quirk, it's just the result of countless medical experiments. It's not a quirk, but it's not a curse either. Then again, spending your every waking moment hearing the thoughts of those around you probably would be considered a curse by most people. Along with constantly seeing through people's clothes and the walls. But Izuku isn't most people. He doesn't actually hate his powers, he just hates what he went through to gain them.

Project Bloodlines.

A military-funded medical study on the quirkless, subjecting unwilling children to go through what even the most shadowy of government intelligence agencies would consider torture. Most people knew about the project, but they thought it was only a study on activating latent quirks. They didn't know the truth.

But the worst thing about the project wasn't the secrecy of what was really going on behind the facade, or the illegality, or even the death toll of both the doctors and the patients.

The worst thing about Project Bloodlines was that it worked.

Ever since that doctor's visit when he was four years old, Izuku was part of Project Bloodlines. Weekly injections, monthly minor surgeries, and examinations. Things got hazy when he turned twelve, an entire months visit in the hospital a complete blank. He doesn't know what happened when he was there, he only knows the impossible weight in his bones, the pattern of scars behind his ears and that his eyes felt _wrong_ in his head.

He can't pinpoint the exact moment his abilities came online, but it started slowly. Hearing things that weren't there, seeing things that didn't make sense. But he remembers the first time he crushed something in his grip, turned a brick into a fine powder. He's not normal, he doesn't think he ever was, even before everything. The first time he read someone's mind, really read it and dug into every piece of who they were, he had a migraine for a week. But now it's almost too easy.

He doesn't even need to write down quirk analysis anymore, he can just read it all in their own words. He knows that Mount Lady can only go from her normal height to sixty-seven feet and that Kamui Woods is only as good as he is from years of practice. His quirk isn't actually that strong, it's just versatile.

Adjusting his solid black sunglasses, Izuku made his way through his school, heading to class the same way he had hundreds of times already. He remembered how it used to be, the jeers and insults constantly lobbed at him from every angle, the teachers doing nothing because he was Quirkless. Now the insults were different, instead of 'quirkless' or 'useless,' it was 'creep' and 'freak.'

And he was a freak. Anyone who looked him in the eye would know, so he hid, even if the world saw through his flimsy disguise. But he wasn't hiding from the world. He was hiding from himself.

No normal middle schooler had seen as much of the world as he had, but who would ever believe him? The truth of Project Bloodlines was wiped from just about every government record, the lie the only thing left behind. And the only ones who knew about what had really happened were those who had lived through it. And those were in increasingly short supply.

But what was he supposed to do? Tell a hero? 'A secret branch of the military is killing quirkless kids that aren't actually quirkless and the doctors that created them, I know because I was experimented on in a shadowy hospital run by the government?'

Izuku scoffed as he slumped down in his seat seconds before the bell rang, earning him a glare from his past tormentor. Bakugou hadn't really messed with him after he developed a 'quirk.' He hadn't said a single word to him since the day Izuku had come to school with eyes as black as pitch that made even the toughest around puke until they passed out. Aside from the nausea, it wasn't the color that seemed to upset people the most, it was the flat dead look they always had in them. The absence of either light or life.

For almost all of his life, Izuku had wanted to be a hero, but now, now that he finally had power, he wasn't sure if he could be. He wasn't strong enough, wasn't _good_ enough. There were so many others who were better than him, people who had been born for greatness. People that weren't freaks.

He closed his eyes, tuning out the chaos that erupted when the teacher announced high school plans. Bakugou was shouting about how he was going to surpass All Might, and Izuku suppressed a laugh.

Bakugou acted tough, but his thoughts betrayed him. Izuku hadn't really understood what people meant by 'inferiority complex' until he had peeked into Bakugou's mind. He was always so scared, and so self-conscious. If he hadn't tormented Izuku ever since he was four years old, he would almost feel sorry for the explosive boy.

 _This will get the kids attention._

The thought came from the mind of the teacher, and Izuku's heart dropped when he heard the negative energy behind it. He didn't like the sound of this.

"You also wanted to go to UA, didn't you Midoriya?"

As the class fell silent, a ripple of tension flowing through the room, Izuku wished Project Bloodlines had given him the ability to sink through the floor or to turn invisible. They didn't say anything, but that didn't mean anything to Izuku.

 _That freak thinks he can be a hero?_

 _Wouldn't he be more suited to be like, a villain?_

 _He's such a creep, who would want to be saved by him?_

 _freak he's so gross freak creep he's so weird what's wrong with him why are his eyes like that his quirk is so gross_

Everyone's thoughts overlapped, but Izuku still understood them. He always understood them.

The only one of them that actually had the guts to speak was someone that Izuku would rather hadn't. "Deku, what the hell is wrong with you? You think you can be a hero? You think you can make it to UA? UA doesn't teach freaks!" Bakugou slammed his hands down onto Izuku's desk, glaring down at him.

Izuku sunk down in his seat, just wishing everyone would stop looking at him. "UA is, well, it's my dream, Bakugou." Of course, this was the first thing Bakugou would say to him after all these months, wasn't that just his luck.

"All these losers with weak quirks, but at least they don't make people sick." Bakugou sneered down at him, small explosions popping in the palms of his hands.

"There's nothing that says I can't go to UA, there's no harm in trying, right?"

"You just want to _try?_ What can you even do other than make people sick?"

Izuku wasn't sure what happened after he was asked that, the rest of the day seemed to pass by in a blur until the last bell rang and he was alone in the classroom. Again. For the third time this week. He glanced up at the clock, he had been sitting there for over ten minutes after the bell.

With a sigh, Izuku packed up his school supplies, slinging his backpack on and heading home. His mind wandered as he walked, he seemed to be losing track of time lately and it was beginning to become a problem. He had even lost an hour of time while working out last week, he doesn't know if he just stopped running on the track or if he just kept going. He just felt like he was drifting through with no purpose.

Once Izuku stepped into the tunnel that he walked through every day, he stopped and leaned up against the wall, rubbing at his temples in the hopes of being able to make sense of everything that he life had turned into. He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, letting his frustration and paranoia leave with it. But was it really paranoia if they're really out to get you. Izuku chuckled, leaning his head against the cold concrete of the wall and closed his eyes, letting the constant mental noise wash over him.

Someone nearby was getting married, somebody just bought a new pet, someone was going to a funeral. Someone was… running from a hero.

Frowning, Izuku straightened back up, tilting his sunglasses down and staring at the concrete under his feet. There was someone under there, moving through the sewers. Izuku took a step back, keeping his distance from the manhole cover that he had a feeling was going to become a door.

Pulling his sunglasses off all the way, Izuku blinked in rapid repetition, adjusting his vision to the slightly brighter light under the tunnel.

"A medium body to hide in." The villain bubbled up from the sewer, dripping as it reformed above ground.

Izuku jumped back, his augmented tendons and ligaments launching him over five feet, landing with a heavy thud and cracking the concrete slightly under his weight. Steeling himself, Izuku looked into the villains' eyes, the radiation and ultrasonic signatures he used to see forcing the gloopy villain to vomit violently. It was disgusting, but in this situation, he would rather have a villain vomit than have his own death. He wasn't sure how a villain made of sludge even could vomit, and honestly, he was starting to feel a bit queasy himself. But he kept his eyes open until they began to itch, the villain convulsing violently as they were sick over and over. Morbidly, Izuku wondered if it was possible to puke oneself to death, but he decided he wasn't going to test that anytime soon.

Blinking finally, Izuku rubbed at his eyes, putting his sunglasses back on as he kept his distance from the villain and their increasingly violent thoughts as they faded into unconsciousness. He sifted through the layers of the villains' mind, jolting in surprise when he learned exactly who the villain had been running from.

All Might was in town and was apparently chasing this very villain. Izuku had to admit that that was exciting, everyone wanted to meet the number one hero, but he never thought that might be a possibility for him.

And almost as if it were on cue, there was a loud clang as the manhole cover was flipped up from underneath, the figure of the nations greatest hero appearing in the small patch of sun that reached under the tunnel, casting his shadow forward.

"Fear not kid, I am here!"

With a bag of groceries apparently. Izuku would laugh if he didn't think he was going to puke. Instead, he just wobbled slightly, watching as All Might stepped into the puddle of vomit. That was the only push he needed and Izuku burst into laughter, pointing as he collapsed into a fit of giggles. "Watch out for the, hehehe, for the puke." He gripped his stomach, the convulsions from his laughter not helping his feeling of nausea. "Sorry, I should have warned you."

All Might looked down at the massive puddle, his trademark grin taking on a slightly pained edge. "This is… this is vomit?"

"Yes." Izuku nodded, fighting back a hysterical grin. "I made him puke until he passed out." He pointed to the unconscious lump of a villain, the orange eyes glazed over in their stunned state.

"That's an interesting quirk." _Horrifying is more like it. I wonder how it works._ All Might jammed the villain into one of the bottles as he pondered that thought, a flash of motion catching his eye.

Feeling slightly bold, Izuku tapped the side of his sunglasses with one finger, watching the expression on the heroes face shift slightly as he tried to figure out if Izuku could read his mind.

 _Did he hear that?_

Izuku nodded, almost collapsing in laughter again at the look he was given in response. "Don't worry, it's just a passive quirk, I can't shut it off." He cast his gaze to the side, seeing someone's skeleton at the same time as seeing their skin really messed with his head after a few seconds.

 _That sounds awful. Do I even need to say that out loud? What's the etiquette here?_

"It is awful. Imagine being twelve and learning about what your teachers do on the weekends." Izuku shuddered, he had learned more about his teachers in one hour than he had ever wanted to know. "And you should say things out loud, I don't want to look like a crazy person." Izuku wondered if All Might knew about Project Bloodlines, mostly he just wanted to know if he could trust him. His gaze skipped back onto the hero on accident and he jolted when he saw the dozens of hairline fractures, the missing rib, and the virtually shattered organs. Izuku's eyes widened behind the plastic of his sunglasses and his jaw dropped, "holy hell, how are you still alive?"

All Might went still, one of his hands coming up to cover the injury he had been struggling to live with for years now. How had this kid seen that? He wasn't thinking about it. Wasn't his quirk mindreading? Or nausea inducement? What was this kids quirk anyway? With a glance at the kids' feet, he saw the indents and cracks in the concrete and the matching ones five feet away. There was a sinking feeling in his missing stomach, and an unwanted thought came to mind. _Multiple quirks?_

Izukus hands closed into fists and opened again, the action rapidly repeating itself as he tried to think his way out of this. "Uh…. look over there!" Unable to stop himself, he broke into a sprint, the concrete shattering under his feet as he flew past the hero at his top speed, backpack slamming against his back with every step. He had never been good at thinking on his feet, his plan always seemed to be to run away.

"Sorry," he called out as he left All Might in his dust. He just had to get enough of a head start and even All Might wouldn't be able to catch him. Passing his school once more, he dove into the crowd on the sidewalk pushing his way through the people and ignoring their protests.

The moment there was a gap in the crowd, Izuku crouched down into a squat his artificial tendons flexing then contracting, sending him soaring through the air. _Oh, this is awful,_ he thought as he watched the ground fall away beneath him, wondering how All Might did this on a daily basis. _How do I land?_

He twisted in the air, aiming for the closest rooftop as he began his descent. Gritting his teeth, he braced himself for the impact, his world all but shattering as he slammed onto the roof, his breath knocked out of his chest and his eyes rattling in their sockets. Stumbling forward, he miraculously managed to stay on his feet, muscles sore and already tired just from that one jump.

"Oh, that was terrible." Izuku brushed himself down before running his fingers through his hair in a doomed to fail attempt to tame the wild curls. "How does he do that and not cry?" He turned to use the set of stairs only to run face first into a mass of muscle that could only belong to one person.

"You and I need to talk, young man." The voice of the hero wasn't its usual boom, but it was lower and somehow more dangerous.

The only thing Izuku could think to respond with was a quiet, " _meep_ ," as he fell flat onto his ass, staring back up at All Might in shock.

"Are you alright?" _Why did he run? What's he hiding?_

Izuku shook his head, scrambling backward until his back slammed into the railing that enclosed the roof, bending it under his weight. He needed to get out of here, he couldn't trust anyone, not even the number one hero could be trusted. All heroes worked for the government, no one could be trusted. He rolled back to his feet, keeping himself pressed flat to the railing as he tried to figure out the best way out of this. "Uh, so, um. Shit."

He felt nauseous and weak, sweat dripping down his forehead and the scars behind his ears. He had to get out, he had to leave, he couldn't stay here. Forcing himself to breathe, Izuku gripped the railing, not feeling it crumple under his grip as if it were paper. The metal screamed under his hand, twisting into unnatural shapes with every twitch of his fingers.

It was all too much, he could see too much and hear too much and _feel_ too much. Izuku dropped back down into a squat, desperate to just leave and forget that this day had even happened. He released the mangled metal of the railing, twisting his bloodied hands in his hair desperately.

"Kid?" All Might stepped forward, a worried expression on his face. He had only wanted to ask if the kid had a connection to All for One not send them into a panic attack.

"Did they send you? The Institute? Thorn Ridge? Bloody Peak?" Izuku began listing any shadow organization that had influence over the world of heroics, any one of them could be involved in the 'clean up' of Project Bloodlines. "Blackbriar?"

"Excuse me?" All Might had to admit that he was beginning to worry, he was running against the clock on his time limit and this kid was raising more questions than answers. _What is this kid talking about? Thorn Ridge was shut down almost ten years ago._

"That's what they want you to think," Izuku shouted, heartbeat going wild in his panic. "Those shadow organizations are still out there, they've been killing us off like animals." Izuku had lost too many of the others that he had tracked down, almost one a month. He was the only one left other than the doctors. He didn't know when they would find him, but after the doctor that had made him had disappeared he hadn't so much as heard a whisper of the Project.

"What do you mean?"

Izuku looked up, black eyes wide behind his dark lenses. "What do you know about Project Bloodlines?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Project Bloodlines?" Toshinori had heard of the study, just about everyone who was quirkless had, most of them hoping that they would find a way to make them fit in. "It was a study on activating latent quirks, wasn't it?"

Izuku shook his head, nervously gripping the straps of his backpack with bloody hands while he sifted through the heroes thoughts, leaving no memory unturned and leaving no trace of his presence. It was hard to keep the relieved note from his voice when he answered, "no, it wasn't."

All Might didn't know the truth about Bloodlines and Izuku couldn't describe how happy he was that the hero wasn't involved in the cover-up. He stood back up, stepping up to the hero and ignoring the warning flare of danger that passed through the hero's mind. Izuku was used to people thinking he was dangerous. He was an unnatural force and people always seemed to be able to tell. "We can't talk about this in the open, they're always watching then they get you when you least expect it."

 _A bit paranoid, isn't he? Wait, he can hear me. Shit._

All Might's grin took on an edge of discomfort, his entire being radiating confusion.

With a shrug Izuku stepped towards the stairs, squinting in the light that got past his sunglasses. "Don't worry about it, I'm used to it." He didn't even use computers or have a smartphone because anyone with hacking skills could track him. And because X-ray vision makes texting impossible. "You should turn in that villain first."

Izuku glanced down to where the bottles containing the villain should have been, his stomach dropping when he didn't see them. "Um, where _is_ the villain?" His mind raced with possibilities, the villain could have been sent by the institute. Maybe the villain had been working for Doctor Tsubasa the entire time! Anything was possible with those involved with Bloodlines.

All Might patted down his pockets frantically, cursing himself internally. He had been too busy trying to chase a child just because they had a confusing quirk instead of actually doing his job as a hero. "Damnit." _I must have dropped them during my jump._

"You lost them? Oh god," Izuku glanced around anxiously, "they could be anywhere!" He twisted his fingers in his hair, running down the stairs in a panic in his attempt to track the villain. Had it been his fault that All Might had dropped them? He managed to pinpoint the villains' mind, the slimes thoughts filled with images of destruction and explosions.

Familiar explosions.

"Oh, no." Izuku's heart leaped into his throat when he realized what this meant. The villain had Bakugou. Izuku raced forward, the concrete shattering under his feet as he ran towards the scene of the villains' rampage. He pulled off his sunglasses as he dove through the crowd and past the useless heroes, forcing the villain to make eye contact.

"It's _you_!" The villain barely managed to hold in its vomit, but the shift in its concentration gave Izuku the opening he needed to grab ahold of Bakugou and _pull._ Bakugou flew from the slimes grasp with a disgusting squelching sound, slime dripping from his clothes and hair as Izuku kept himself between the villain and its intended victim. He was scared, but he wasn't going to let anyone else he knew die. He couldn't.

Bakugou's thoughts were a spiraling mess, fear, pain, anger, resentment. But the main emotion was thankfulness. Thankfulness and trust directed at someone he had sworn that he hated.

Gaining strength from Bakugou's faith, Izuku stood fast, his heart was racing in a combination of fear and excitement of the fight and he cast his mind wide, listening for the thoughts of any hero that could help. Latching on to the approaching thought of the number one hero, Izuku kept his fists up, staring down the villain as the radiation and ultrasonic signature became unbearable, the villain unloading heaps of sludge onto the pavement before them as they were violently ill over and over again. His eyes began to dry out, the flat black only more unsettling without moisture. But he pushed through the discomfort, waiting for All Might to arrive.

The hero would be here in seconds, but Izuku didn't know if he would be able to fight in his condition. He wasn't sure _what_ he had seen in All Mights mind, but the hero was fading out, his power slowly draining away with every bit of good that he did.

Izuku felt the hero arrive more than saw it, the hero's thoughts straightforward and as large as the man himself. He sighed with relief internally and the moment that the hero used his Detroit Smash, Izuku was already on the move again, running away just like he always did. If All Might really wanted to talk about Project Bloodlines he would find him. But if he managed to find him Izuku was going to have to figure out another way to cover his tracks.

His paranoia was what had kept him from being found by all of the shadow programs dedicated to hunting those like him. Paranoia was what kept him alive, so what if he was convinced that the cat across the street from his mother's apartment was actually out to get him? He was alive, wasn't he?

Reaching up to adjust his sunglasses, Izuku cursed when he touched empty air and realized that he must have left them behind at the scene of the villains' rampage.

"Looking for these?" The voice of the number one hero would have been a welcome sound were it not coming from just above his shoulder. All Might could be surprisingly stealthy when he tried to be.

"Gyah!" Izuku almost jumped five feet straight up, turning around in midair and landing hard enough to create a crater on the impact. He clutched his chest, his heart hammering away at his ribs. "Don't do that!" He glared at the hero, immediately averting his gaze when he remembered he wasn't wearing his glasses. Making the number one hero vomit was probably some sort of crime and he didn't want that to be the one thing everyone remembered him for. Holding out a hand, Izuku carefully wrapped his fingers around the black plastic that let him function as a normal member of society. "Thank you."

He stared down at the plastic for any sign of tampering, satisfied when he didn't find any trackers or recording devices of any sort. With a sigh, he settled the plastic over his eyes, looking through the solid black and wishing for a moment that he could only see what was on the surface instead of also what was beneath.

"You mentioned Project Bloodlines," All Might asked awkwardly, not sure if the empty street was the proper place to have this conversation.

Izuku nodded, grabbing All Might by the arm and dragging him behind him. "I also said that they're always listening and we can't talk outside."

The number one hero almost tripped over his own feet in a desperate attempt not to literally be dragged behind a child. "You're surprisingly strong!"

"Hmm." Izuku continued to drag the hero behind him, puzzled over the heroes internal struggle before tugging him behind the apartment building he lived in. "We're going in the window, nobody ever expects the window."

 _This child might just be crazy. Wait, sorry._

Izuku rolled his eyes behind the lenses, taking only a few seconds to climb up the drainpipe and jimmy open the window to his apartment kitchen. "Come on, I'll put on some coffee." He threw a leg over the window sill, looking back down at a dumbfounded All Might with a slightly worried expression, the look not quite having the same impact with the dark lenses covering half of his face. "Wait, can you even drink coffee?"

"Can't I just use the door?" All Might had dropped his trademarked grin in exchange for a look of confusion. He didn't want to have to scale a drainpipe if he could go through the door.

"Ugh, fine." Izuku shook his head, climbing the rest of the way through the window. "I'll unlock it," he said, closing the window behind him and heading down the hall to the front door, unlocking it and waiting less than thirty seconds before there was a knock. All but tearing the door open, Izuku grabbed the hero by his shirt collar, pulling him inside while staring around outside warily and closing the door once again. "Shoes at the door, turn off your phone."

 _Am I getting murdered? Is this how murders work?_ But the hero obeyed, leaving his shoes beside the door, just one of his shoes dwarfing the others that were there. He turned off his phone, but not before sending a message to Detective Tsukauchi that let him know that if he didn't text him after an hour he had probably been murdered by a child.

"I… I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Izuku rolled his black eyes, walking back to the kitchen and starting the coffee maker, tapping his fingers anxiously on the countertop as the water boiled. "So, Project Bloodlines, I'll start at..." He stopped, turning back to All Might and pulling off his sunglasses and tossing them onto the table, studying the wound on the heroes side. "Actually, how about you stop pretending that everything is fine and stop putting on a strong front."

 _It's not a pretty sight, I don't want to traumatize this kid. Oh, he can hear me…_ All Might sat in the closest chair, steam pouring off his form as his muscles withered and he quite literally shrank into himself. From behind his bangs, the fading hero looked out with shadowed eyes. "I told you it wasn't a pretty sight."

"You just look like a skeleton." Izuku took a moment, realizing what he had just said. "Wait, sorry, that sounded… bad. That's not what I meant." He tapped his temple, blinking his black eyes. "I just meant that _everyone_ looks like skeletons to me."

All Might just nodded, hoping that now he might get the answers he came here for. He watched as the odd boy filled up two coffee mugs, carefully carrying them back to the table. The strange child pushed an All Might themed mug towards the hero with a grin, barely containing a laugh when the hero accepted it. "What were you going to say about Project Bloodlines?"

"Well," Izuku took a sip of the scalding coffee, not blinking at the heat. "You don't know the truth of the program. The government sold the public on the idea of it being a study on quirkless children born to parents with quirks, trying to activate latent abilities. But in reality…" Izuku paused, unbuttoning the top of his school uniform and pulling off the black fabric, exposing the mass of scars that stretched over his arms and throat. "In reality, they were trying to _create_ quirks."

Izuku traced the scars on his arms, each scar corresponding to a piece of himself that had been stripped away, a piece of himself that had been twisted, a piece of himself that had been replaced.

"Creating quirks? Is that… is that even possible?" All Might felt sick, attempting to create quirks was something that even All for One wouldn't do. The villain thought of himself as the ultimate evil but even he wouldn't do something like this.

Drinking his coffee, Izuku took a moment to figure out how to answer the hero. He didn't technically have a quirk, he was just _altered_ beyond the norm. He set the coffee down, spinning the mug against his palm as he spoke. "Yes, but also… no." He raised a fist, the same fist that All Might had seen rip through steel as if it were paper. "My strength is a byproduct of hundreds of surgeries. Implantations and replaced tissues, that sort of thing. My bones aren't normal either, they've been coated in an experimental carbon-nanotube and tungsten-ceramic blend. I'm much more durable than a normal human." Unfortunately, he was also heavier, but the extra weight had forced him to have extra strength, so it seemed like a decent trade-off.

"What about the telepathy?" All Might didn't think that something like _that_ could be created in a laboratory, but he might be wrong. He tentatively took a sip of the coffee, pleasantly surprised at the light taste of hazelnuts.

Izuku answers him with a shrug. "It's not true telepathy, I can only read minds, nothing else. I can't send messages or anything like that." Izuku ran his fingers over the scarring behind his ears. "I don't know what they did to create that, I don't remember… I don't remember a lot of things. There are just _gaps,_ even in my childhood memories." He took another swallow of his coffee, trying to calm himself. He wasn't exactly a fan of talking about his abilities. The only other person who knew was his mother, and she had taken it poorly. She worked two jobs and they barely spent any time together anymore. "As for my vision, well, it was a heavy mix of radiation and mutagenic chemicals. I don't have working tear ducts anymore, and I can't see color. They basically cooked them until they were well done." He snickered at his dark joke, hiding his face in his coffee as the hero across from him processed what he was being told.

"Wait, if this program worked, why didn't they come clean about it?" When he was younger he would have given anything for a quirk so why had the government just covered it all up?

Izuku grinned, getting to the real convoluted part of the conspiracy. "Because they weren't making us to help us fit in with the rest of the world." He paused, letting those words sink in before continuing. "They were making us to be weapons."

"Bloodlines was _military_ funded, not publicly." All Might raised a hand to his mouth, pushing down the feeling of horror that was dawning over him. The program couldn't come clean because the entire time it had been meant to create child soldiers. _Oh my god._

"Now you get it." Izuku finished his cup of coffee, standing and pouring a second cup. "I'm the only one left now. I think there are about six doctors left, but the one who... _made_ me disappeared before the shadow programs began hunting everyone." Izuku only wanted to become a hero now so he could hunt down Dr. Tsubasa and make sure that he never did something like this to another living soul. It was a selfish reason, but it was the only reason he had left.

"And you never told anyone?" He couldn't believe that this kid was just walking around with so much weight on his shoulders.

Izuku almost spat out his mouthful of coffee. "Hah! Who am I supposed to tell? The police? Their computers and communications are monitored by everyone!"

 _Alright, he's got a point there._ "You could-

Shaking his head, Izuku cut him off with an explanation. "What, tell a hero? You guys work for the government, the same government that ran Project Bloodlines." Izuku had wanted to tell a hero, but he had figured out he couldn't trust anyone when he was only twelve. An encounter with a hospital security guard who also had a hero license had taught him that. "I can't trust anyone."

 _You can trust me, can't you?_

Izuku shrugged, fidgeting with the sunglasses that still lay on the tabletop. "I guess we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

"You can trust me, you know?" All Might didn't know the extent of what traumas this kid had faced, but he was a hero, it was his duty to save people. And that included people that thought that they could save themselves.

Only Izuku didn't think he could save himself. He thought he didn't deserve to be saved. After all, freaks don't deserve to have a place in this world, do they? Izuku didn't voice his thoughts, he just drank his coffee in silence, the odd tension in the kitchen growing by the second before he interrupted it with one question he had always wanted to know the answer to. "Can… can someone like me become a… can someone like me become a hero?"

"I don't see why not. You have to be ready to sacrifice everything at a moments notice." All Might sipped at the cooling coffee, thinking over his words. "You can never be daunted by evil. And I have no doubt in my mind, you can even read it, I have no doubt that you could be an amazing hero."

Izuku sniffled, pressing his hands to his eyes. "I wish that I could still cry, but these damn eyes…" He rubbed the back of his hand against his nose, grinning shakily at the hero. "Thank you. I'll do my best."

 _I'm sure you will._


	3. Chapter 3

It's only been forty minutes, but it was long enough to completely topple any trust All Might might have had in the government prior to this. The hero sipped at his cooling coffee, trying to piece together what he now knew with the world he knew before.

"Train me."

Toshinori almost choked on his coffee in surprise. He set the cup back down, wiping the coffee and blood from his face. "Excuse me?"

"Train me," Izuku shrugged, taking a long drink of his third cup of coffee before continuing. "I'm nowhere near as strong as you, but I can theoretically do most of the same moves you do. Just at my own level." If Izuku had to estimate, he would put his strength at a little less than a quarter of All Mights own. Not enough to be the top hero, but enough to be a _good_ hero. A category one hurricane compared to a five. "So, what do you say?"

"Well," Toshinori paused thinking it over. This paranoid kid certainly wasn't going to end up being his successor, but he didn't see a problem with training him. Maybe it would be good for him to try teaching someone before he _did_ find a successor. Before he could answer, Izuku grinned at him across the table, already knowing the answer.

"Really?" Izuku's voice held a small note of hope, a hope he hadn't had for quite a long time. "Do you mean it?"

Toshinori sighed, "I'm going to have to get used to that, aren't I?" He didn't think he _could_ get used to the mind reading, but he would have to try.

"Yep." Izuku downed the last of his coffee, glancing towards the empty pot the moment he was done. He wanted more coffee, but he _always_ wanted more coffee. The coffee maker was the only machine that he trusted, it didn't have any overly complex circuitry, there were no microphones and no sort of device that could be hacked at all. And the coffee maker kept him awake on the nights when everything just felt like too much.

He drummed his fingers anxiously, continuously glancing to the side and through the wall, checking for movement.

Watching the fidgeting and twitching escalate, Toshinori had to ask, "are you alright?"

Izuku hesitated before answering, sighing softly. "Just anxious. Well, it's more like, _paranoia_." Izuku fiddled with the coffee cup, trying to decide if he wanted to share more of his personal life. "It's the uh," he tapped the scarring behind one of his ears, the bone beneath the scars jagged and ridged from the repeated breaking but was now all but impenetrable. "Whatever they implanted, the chemicals aren't meant to be there." He glanced through the wall again, watching as cars passed by. "Too much cortisol and adrenaline being produced and a cocktail of other random hormones. It's a constant thing."

 _That sounds miserable._ Toshinori knew that a large amount of the world's population had some issues with their quirks, but the backlash was generally directly linked to quirk use, not a constant effect. "Should you be drinking coffee then?"

Izuku shrugged, "probably not." But anti-anxiety meds didn't work, nor did soothing teas or any herbal remedy. But coffee made it bearable. Enhanced his focus and cut through the stress enough for him to function. "You should probably meet my mother, you know, tell her about training."

Toshinori had so many questions about the heavy tone that Izuku's voice had taken on at the mention of his mother, but he didn't ask them. Chances were Izuku had already heard them. "Would she be alright with you being trained by me?"

"She doesn't really… _care._ " Izuku struggled to find the words that defined what he wanted to say, taking a moment to organize his thoughts. "She didn't take the news of Project Bloodlines well, and we haven't exactly talked since then."

"When did you," he gestured vaguely, trying to convey the idea of the conversation he had just been involved in.

"A little under two years ago." Izuku shook his head, closing his eyes as he remembered how that discussion had gone.

His mother hadn't wanted to believe him at first, but once she had seen the scars and seen that he had more than just one 'quirk,' she had been forced to see the truth. She blamed herself, but Izuku saw the thoughts that she didn't even know she was thinking, the worst thought spiraling just below the surface.

 _My son is a monster._

 _He's not normal._

 _This isn't natural._

 _Is he even human anymore?_

Those words had changed the dynamic, even if they hadn't been said or heard and the two of them hadn't had a real conversation since.

"You haven't talked to your mother for almost two _years_?"

"I just… she's right," Izuku's voice went whisper low, barely audible but his words still carried, words that nobody should ever think about themselves always do. "I'm _not_ natural."

 _Did she really say that to her own son? Who could do that?_ Toshinori knew that his words could never convey exactly how he felt learning that, but he still had to try. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"Hmm." Izuku nodded, understanding the words behind the apology. "Thanks."

The air over the table grew slightly tense, Izuku breaking it by standing suddenly, staring past the walls and to the parking lot. "Were you followed?"

"What?"

"Police car, one person." Izuku paused, tilting his head as he listened to the police officers thoughts. "They're looking for you."

 _Oh shit._ Toshinori patted down his pockets looking for his phone. "It's been more than an hour, hasn't it?"

Izuku grabbed his sunglasses and put them back on as he watched the figure approach the door, "yes, why?"

The fading hero sighed, "it's alright, it's just Detective Tsukauchi. I texted him that if I didn't text back in an hour I was…" He looked down at the dark screen of his phone, thinking about what he had sent his friend, a guilty expression appearing on his face. "Oh. That was probably stupid of me to say, wasn't it?"

"...what did you say?"

Toshinori wrung his hands, trying to figure out the best way to phrase this, even though he knew that Midoriya had probably already read what he had done, but he still needed to tell him. "I said that I might have… maybe, been murdered if I didn't text him after an hour?" Looking back, it had definitely been the wrong thing to text someone before turning off your phone for over an hour.

Izuku rubbed his hands over his face, his fingers pushing his sunglasses on to his forehead as he pressed against his eyes hard enough to see spots. "Wow, the number one hero is an idiot." He couldn't bring himself to feel bad about saying that, who only gives themselves an hour time limit for an in-depth conversation?

There was a knock at the door, the sort of knock that you just _know_ belongs to an officer of the law. Assertive and loud.

"You should probably answer that." Toshinori turned to see Izuku already climbing out the window, a conflicted look on his face.

Izuku shook his head frantically, green curls bouncing around his face as he continued to climb out the window. He knew he could trust All Might, but he wasn't sure about anyone else. "How about no, I'm going on the roof and running away, you can deal with this." He balanced on the window ledge, "you can't trust anyone!"

The doorknob rattled and Izuku almost slipped from the window ledge, staring through the walls as he watched the detective pace for a moment before knocking again. "Yagi-san?" _That idiot better not be dead._

"Heh." Izuku struggled to keep his balance and contain his laughter, the absurdity of the situation catching up to him all of a sudden. "This is insane," he muttered, climbing back in the window and closing it behind him before heading to the door, shooting a glare at the hero in his kitchen before opening it. "He's not dead, just dumb," he said instead of a greeting, sifting through the officers' mind before opening the door the rest of the way. His trust of the officer was still up in the air, but he liked what he had seen in his mind. Straightforward, determined, hardworking and a healthy appreciation of baseball.

"Oh." Naomasa still had his hand raised, ready to knock again when the door had been opened by a small green haired boy wearing the darkest sunglasses he had ever seen. "Why did he say he might be murdered?" He glanced over the boy's shoulder, seeing Toshinori peering around the corner of the hallway, a guilty look on his face.

"I don't know, let's ask him." Izuku waved the detective inside, closing the door behind him. "Shoes at the door, phone off, thanks. More importantly, how did you find him?"

"I had the technicians in the computer forensics lab check the last location of his phone then cross-referenced the traffic cams in the area to trace his steps here." Naomasa followed the teenagers' instructions, sure there was a method to the madness before following him into the apartment, taking in the lack of family photos or personal effects that suggested a teenager even lived there. "He disappeared for a while, then reappeared outside your door."

"Told him he should have came in through the window." Izuku had mapped his route specifically to avoid the possibility of being recorded, but he hadn't thought about the hero having left the GPS on his phone active. Sometimes he forgot that other people weren't as paranoid as he is. "Well, he's not dead, so…" Izuku gestured towards the hero, watching the detective with an unreadable expression hidden behind his sunglasses. He still hadn't made up his mind, but he was getting there.

Toshinori waved awkwardly, "Tsukauchi, it's great to see you." _If only it wasn't because I was being an idiot._

"Tch," Izuku rolled his eyes behind the dark lenses. "I'll make coffee, don't mind me," he said sarcastically, prepping the coffee pot and trying not to listen in to the conversation going on behind him, focusing instead on watching the bones move in his hand as he finished up the coffee pot and let it run. He looked through the layers in his hand, skin bone and metal all in one layer of washed out grey.

"Midoriya?"

"Hmm?" Izuku blinked rapidly, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Damnit."

He's lost almost ten minutes this time, he didn't even know it was happening, just like last time less than three hours ago. "Sorry, I just…" he shook his head, "nevermind, don't worry about it."

"If I'm going to train you I'll need to know what's going on." Toshinori knew it was a low move to threaten to not train the boy, but he was worried. This kid had gone through so much and didn't seem to be able to open up to anyone or even trust himself.

Izuku sighed, glaring from behind his sunglasses before leaning against the kitchen counter and beginning to put things straight. "Sometimes if I try to not hear others thoughts I end up hyper-focusing on my vision and lose time." He shrugged, nonchalantly pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee and filling two mugs for his guests. Handing off the mugs, he continued his explanation. "It's usually about ten minutes, but the episodes can last up to five hours if I'm blocking both my hearing and vision."

 _Forced sensory deprivation. I think that's actually classified as a form of torture._

"You would be right to think that detective." Izuku didn't mention that sometimes he wouldn't even know he was beginning to hyperfocus until he was halfway into an episode and only pain could bring him back out of it.

"That's unsettling." Naomasa was used to being the person that made others uncomfortable with his quirk, not the other way around. Speaking of, what even was this kids quirk? Some sort of enhanced perception? Telepathy?

"I've been told I have that effect on people." Izuku clasped his coffee in both hands, inhaling the aroma before chugging half of the scalding brew in one go. "That hits the spot." He looked back up at his guests, not used to spending so much time with people outside of his classes. "You can clue him in on my tragic backstory if you want to, he's trustworthy enough."

With that, Toshinori realized that he had been misunderstanding the boys' standoffish attitude and paranoia. He didn't let many people in, but those that he did, he trusted completely, doing no things by half measures. "Only if you're sure."

Izuku nodded, "I'm sure." He had gone through the detectives' mind a few more times, looking for any reference to Project Bloodlines and finding none. He hadn't even heard the lie that the program had been hiding behind. "But do it somewhere other than here, it's getting late." Izuku gestured to the front door, waving goodbye as the adults just stood there in the kitchen looking at him like he was crazy. He had waited until they were both done with their coffee, so what was the problem here?

"Wait, we need to set up a schedule for your training." Toshinori had to admit that he hadn't been expecting this level of trust in only one day. Hell, in less than an hour. It was a hell of an ability, to know in only moments if you could trust someone with your greatest secret and what was essentially your life.

"Don't worry, I'll find you," Izuku said cryptically, pouring another cup of coffee and setting it by the pot.

 _That's terrifying._

 _What have you gotten yourself into Toshinori, this kid is scary._

"Bye!" Izuku pushed them both towards the door, their lack of shoes giving them no purchase in the wood flooring of the hall. "Go, and watch out for the cat across the street!"

 _What about a cat?_

 _What's the cat got to do with anything?_

The moment they were both out, Izuku locked the door, leaning his back against it as he tried to sort out his emotions. He had people he could trust now. He hadn't had something like this… ever. He slid down to the floor, cradling his head in his hands and wishing once again that he could still cry.

Rubbing at his eternally dry eyes, he grinned weakly. He was going to be a hero, starting his training tomorrow. The monster was going to be a _hero._


	4. Chapter 4

"What did he mean by tragic backstory?" Naomasa had no clue what he had just been roped into, but he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. If anything starts with someone thinking they might be murdered by an actual child, maybe it's just best to stay out of it.

"Exactly that. A tragic backstory. Or maybe more _traumatic_ backstory." The moment he was down the stairs, Toshinori stopped, staring across the street at the cat they had been warned about before being all but thrown out the door. "Wow, that _is_ a suspicious looking cat."

"That cat? Huh, it is…" Naomasa stared at the cat for a moment before looking back to Toshinori with a confused expression. "Is it looking over here?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it."

Shrugging off the weird feeling the cat seemed to have given off, Naomasa grabbed the keys for the car from his pocket. "Get in the car; I'll drive you home." Naomasa unlocked the police cruiser, climbing into the driver's seat and buckling himself in. As he started the car, he waited for Toshinori to set the passenger seat all the way back, his knees still pulled up to his chest even with the adjustment. He really wasn't meant to fit in normal sized cars. Naomasa shifted into reverse, backing the cruiser out of the lot. "So, that kid…"

Toshinori chuckled awkwardly, "Yeah, not a murderer, just paranoid."

"So," Naomasa wasn't sure how to transition into the next conversation, so he just went for it. "What did he mean?"

Taking a moment to arrange his thoughts, Toshinori decided to do what was easiest and start at the beginning. "I thought at first that he might have been connected to All for One."

Almost immediately connecting the dots, Naomasa glanced to Toshinori before focusing back on the road. "Are you saying he has multiple quirks?"

"Yes, and no." Nothing made sense anymore, but he still had to try and explain this. "Do you remember Project Bloodlines?"

"What?"

Toshinori took that as a _no._ "It was supposed to be a study on latent quirks on quirkless children born to parents that did have quirks."

"Supposed to be? What the hell was it then?" Naomasa didn't like the sound of this. He wasn't sure what was going on, but if the world's greatest hero was this rattled, how could anyone else do anything?

"They were trying to replicate quirks."

The detective adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, the fake leather creaking under his hands. "Replicate how?"

"Medically. It's… I didn't know this was happening, and it's too late to do anything about it now." What kind of hero wasn't able to protect everyone? Wasn't that what he was supposed to do? "All those people…"

"I don't know what this… Project Bloodlines is, but if it's connected to people's deaths you should -

"I can't." Toshinori rubbed his hands over his face, trying to push down his frustration. "The authorities, the _heroes_ already knew."

"..." Naomasa went quiet. If people already knew, but nothing had been done about it, what did that mean for justice? What did that mean for the police force he had dedicated over six years of his life to? He stayed quiet as he pulled into the parking lot of Toshinori apartment building, not saying a word as he parked.

"We should talk about this inside, it's not something that should get out." Oh great, he was already getting paranoid.

"Right." The two walked to the apartment in the relative quiet, the only sounds that of the city night.

Unlocking the door, Toshinori waved Naomasa inside, heading straight to the kitchen one the door was closed and locked behind them. "I'll make coffee, it's going to be a long night."

* * *

"You want me to… clean up the beach?" Izuku blinked behind the dark lenses, looking out at the mountains of trash. Two days ago, he had gotten the location and timing from All Might's mind, but he hadn't actually gotten the details of the training. This wasn't what he had been expecting.

The hero nodded before gesturing to the literal tons of trash heaped onto the sand. "Being a hero isn't just about fighting villains." Toshinori knew the boy didn't really need the strength training, but it was a good disguise for the _real_ training. Teaching Midoriya how to interact with people without terrifying them or running away while screaming.

"Hrrm." Izuku tapped his fingers against his thighs anxiously, avoiding listening to All Might's thoughts. "I suppose that volunteer work has… fallen by the wayside on the highway of heroics."

Toshinori laughed, "that's an awful bit of wordplay, I'm using it."

The teenager shrugged, rolling the last bit of sleep stiffness from his shoulders. "Go ahead, people love wordplay and puns. Do you have any idea how many puns people think on a daily basis?" Izuku had heard almost every possible pun, but he still loved them. "Hundreds."

"Really?" The fading hero paused, thinking that bit of information over before asking, "per person or as a group?"

Izuku waved a hand vaguely, still looking over the beach and formulating a plan if action. "Per person." Izuku pulled off his sunglasses, handing them to the fading hero. "Can you hold onto these for a bit? I don't want to lose them, or even worse, break them."

"Of course." Toshinori took the dark glasses, putting them on before recoiling in shock. The lenses couldn't even be seen through; they were just pieces of solid black plastic. "How do you see through these?"

The green haired teen ambled over to the closest pile, grabbing the nearest piece of garbage. "X-ray vision, remember?" Izuku hefted a filing cabinet in his grip, the mass of metal flaking rust wherever his hands touched. "They actually help limit the range of it, too." Adding an extra layer to scan through prevented him from looking too far ahead and through everything that was there. It cut his vision down from almost three miles to barely a quarter of one. In all honesty, it was practically a miracle that he hadn't lost his mind without them yet.

"So your vision is also constantly active?" Toshinori hung the sunglasses on his shirt collar, watching as Midoriya almost crushed the filing cabinet in his grip.

"Damn," Izuku adjusted his hold on the now crumpled cabinet. "Yes, it's a mix of ultrasonic and radiation frequencies. Not easy to live with, but it does come in handy to avoid people."

"Where did you even get these? They're more like support gear than glasses."

"A… a friend in the project." Izuku shook his head; he didn't know what had happened to Monaghan, only that it had happened sometime in the missing month. "He was… the only person I knew I could trust there." Even though the two of them had met before Izuku could read minds, he knew he could trust the other.

Izuku worked silently for a while, just moving the closest cabinets and machinery to the truck All Might had somehow procured. But when he accidentally crushed the third toaster oven in his grip, he stopped, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in a desperate attempt to center himself again. Talking about, even _thinking_ about Monaghan threw him back to those blank spaces in his head.

Not seeing Izuku's internal struggle, Toshinori called out worriedly, "Midoriya, my boy? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, All Might." Izuku pressed his hands to his face, pushing his fingers against his closed eyelids until he saw spots. He pulled them away from his face and blinked away the spots, picking up the destroyed toaster oven and moving it to the truck. He had to keep going; he wasn't going to get an opportunity like this ever again. "I'm good."

"Don't ignore your mental health just because you think I would want you to." Toshinori waved the boy over to the side of the truck, watching with worry as the teen glanced around and twitched anxiously. "What's on your mind?"

Izuku leaned against the truck, his gaze on his own shoes as he watched the bones in his feet shift. He tapped his toes nervously, the artificial tendons flexing dangerously within the tattered red leather. "It's hard to explain."

"Try it, I might not understand, but I'm a decent listener." Toshinori joined the boy in leaning on the truck, trying to put out an aura of comfort for someone that knew everything about him but still barely trusted him.

"All my missing memories, Monaghan, the hospital, they're all connected somehow." Izuku frowned, even mentioning Monaghan was enough to send him spiraling. "The only thing I remember with any clarity is the doctor who made me into a monster."

"You're not a monster, Midoriya."

"Aren't I?" Izuku kept his gaze cast down, but he couldn't stop his fists from flexing, the scars that covered his hands and arms going white with the pressure. "Even before I was made into a freak, people thought I was already one. How are they not right?"

"Would a monster want to save lives?"

"Well-

"Or protect strangers?"

"I-

"Or would a monster jump into a fight they know they couldn't win just to save someone who hates them?" He had learned about Midoriya's and Bakugou's toxic friendship that had turned into bullying, but if the boy still rushed in to save someone that tormented them, then he had the heart of a real hero.

Izuku sighed, leaning back and letting his head thunk against the metal of the truck bed. "You're making a very good argument." He shoved his hands into the mess of tangled green curls that he called his hair, feeling the uncountable scars that laced over his scalp. "Fine, if I'm not a monster or a freak, then what am I? I can't really say that I'm quirkless, but I definitely don't have a quirk."

"You're someone who survived something they weren't meant to."

Izuku looked up to the blue sky, his vision only seeing shades of grey and white. "You're very good at this, do they teach heroes how to always know what to say?"

"No, but that could come in handy." Toshinori sighed, joining the boy in gazing at the sky. "I might not understand what you went through, but I know how it feels to not expect to live."

"Shit." Izuku pressed his hands to his face, frustrated to find his eyes were still dry. And they always would be. "...thank you."

 _Anytime._

"I'm going to hold you to that."

 _Good._ "Good."

* * *

"So, why are you out in Musutafu anyways?" Izuku had waited for over three months to finally ask, trying to let it come up naturally. But after so long, he was impatient and decided to just ask.

"Can't you just read my mind?" Toshinori had to admit he didn't know much about mind reading, but this seemed like something that could be figured out without being asked.

"I _could,"_ Izuku frowned, "but that could be considered rude." Most people didn't like mind readers in the first place, and most people also wouldn't appreciate someone poking around in their head and learning all of their personal secrets.

"You're an odd child."

The paranoid teen nodded, he didn't have an argument for that. "Hmm."

Waiting a moment to decide if he was going to answer the original question before deciding to just go for it. The teen was probably going to find out anyway, so he might as well. "I'm going to be teaching at UA."

"..." Izuku blinked slowly, trying process that statement. "What."

Continuing his explanation, the hero said, "I'm looking for a successor to my quirk."

Izuku waved away the words, "I'm sorry, but I seem to have a bit of cognitive dissonance going on and my mind refuses to accept that you're going to be teaching people." Izuku adjusted his sunglasses awkwardly, not sure how else to describe what was going on in his mind. "Like, that's just not something I'm willing to believe." Was All Might going to dress like a teacher? Or just put on a tie with his hero costume? Both of those were simultaneously terrifying and hysterical concepts.

"Am I being insulted? I feel insulted."

"Possibly."

"I like how you don't ask about how it's possible to have a successor for my quirk and just jump straight to the insults."

"It's a skill." Izuku shrugged, deciding to overshare once again. "That's what happens when you spend your entire childhood being discriminated against. As long as you can insult people, they won't mess with you."

"That sounds healthy."

"You're an adult, you can't sass me."

"Just watch me."

Izuku rolled his eyes, finally latching on to the strangest part of the explanation he had been given. "So, a successor?"

"I'm guessing you already figured out my quirk?"

"Mhm."

"I'm trying to find someone to… take up the mantle of the Symbol of Peace when I'm gone."

Izuku raised his hands in a 'calm down' gesture, "whoa, no death talk, you're not allowed to die. It's illegal."

 _If only it were that easy._

"Make it that easy, just don't die." Izuku wasn't ready or willing to lose the closest thing he had to a parent so quickly. If it came down to it, he would try to track down this 'All for One' and fist fight him in a McDonald's parking lot at three am. Sure, it wasn't the healthiest mindset, but it was the only plan he had right now that didn't involve toppling the current government and setting up a new autocracy with himself at the head.

"Alright then, I'll try my best." Time crawled by, the setting sun casting shadows across the beach, the echo of the trash pile eerily beautiful in the low light. As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, Toshinori remembered something he was going to bring up earlier before he had gotten distracted. He reached in through the truck window, grabbing a small box off the dashboard. "Remember how you said you don't have a cell phone?"

"Yes," Izuku nodded, brushing the sand off of his jeans. "I don't understand why people would willingly put listening devices in their pockets. Why?"

Toshinori tossed the box to the boy, stifling a laugh when he barely managed to avoid getting hit in the face. "I got you something, don't worry, there's no spy stuff in there."

Opening to box, Izuku snorted with laughter, plucking the small rectangle of metal and plastic from its box. "Is that... Is that a beeper?" Izuku pushed his sunglasses up into his hair, turning the compact device over in his hands. "That tech is over a hundred years old, how did you even find something like this?"

The hero shrugged, "I called in a favor with a support company, and they managed to make a compact response pager. There are a few pre-programed messages, one of the buttons on the top just lays down a location pin in case you run into trouble and need help." Other than that, the device was untraceable, with only one phone number even programmed into it. And I'm quite sure you don't need me to tell you whose it is. Instead of a screen, there was a collection of small shutters that would either flip to darken or lighten to form the message, one of the few workarounds that made it possible to read a text with x-ray vision.

"This is great." Izuku clipped the device onto his belt, tapping it gently as he settled it into place. "...thanks."

"You're welcome." With a glance at his watch, Toshinori closed the tailgate before getting ready to leave, unlocking the truck. "It's getting late, do you want me to drive you home?"

"Yeah, that would be good." Izuku climbed into the cab of the truck, buckling himself in. "Can we swing by the newsstand first? I need to pick up the latest issue of Conspiracy."

"You read Conspiracy?"

"Mhm. And both Inquisitor and Off the Record."

"Why?" Why would someone so rational, well, aside from the paranoid, read garbage like that? It was even worse than the Hero Star! It was below gossip mags and barely above gutter journalism.

"There's more truth to those stories then you would think. You just have to know the code."

"Wait, so what about that story about alien abduction?" There was no way _that_ could be a coded message, right?

Izuku shrugged, that had been an odd one, but still just a code. "A hacker looking for a buyer for the next quarters crop reports that they had managed to get their hands on over a month in advance. Didn't you wonder why the stock of juice companies was suddenly in high demand last year?"

"I really didn't."

"Besides, there's usually a pretty interesting think piece by Doctor Baytor. Last week was a discussion on optimistic nihilism, you know, 'the world is meaningless, but that doesn't mean it's worthless,' you know?"

"So… make the most of life because you're going to die in the end?"

"Yep." He nodded, he had been reading a lot of philosophy ever since Bloodlines. "The glass isn't half empty or half full, it's refillable."

"Oh," Toshinori adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, slightly confused at the philosophical theories that were being talked about by a literal child. Turning onto the street and pulling up to the newsstand, he parked the truck. "Well, here we are."

"Thanks!" Izuku hopped out of the passenger seat, carefully making his way to the newsstand, adjusting his trajectory to keep himself out of the view of the traffic and security cameras on the street. With a nod to the seller, he picked up the latest issue of Conspiracy, the cheap ink smearing across his fingertips with the briefest of touches. Tossing down exact change, he turned back to the truck, skimming the headlines and article headers for any familiar ciphers.

Climbing back into the truck, he frowned at the ad on the last page.

Wanted: Verification of Flying Rods

Send your best photographic evidence to PO Box 1792, Hosu

"We'll be watching."

"They are Among Us"

It looked normal enough, but if it was in Conspiracy, there was some sort of deeper meaning. One of the problems that he was right off the bat was the PO box number, as far as he knew, there was no 1792 PO box in Hosu. He knew that because he had his personal mail sent to a PO box in Hosu that he rented under a pseudonym. Once a week he picked up his mail and the postal workers there only knew him as 'Yamikumo.'

"Find something interesting?"

"Maybe." Izuku pulled a pen from his pocket, sketching out possible anagrams before circling the vowels outside of the quotes and connecting the points between them on a hunch. Once he saw what the symbol was, he nearly dropped his pen in shock.

Those vowels corresponded perfectly with the security and traffic cameras outside the apartment he had been living in while he was still in the program. The lines were the sight lines. And 179 was the address of the building and 2, was that of the apartment itself.

Someone was watching his old apartment. He knew he was the only living test subject left, but he hadn't expected the doctors to be taken down so quickly. The last coded message they had sent out had been less than a month ago, and it implied that the remaining six were still alive. They must have ratted him out before they were terminated.

That meant only Tsubasa was left. Maybe he was the one behind all of this.

"Shit." He hastily dragged his fingertips through the fresh ink from the pen, destroying his discovery and committing it to memory. For the past two years he had been flying under the radar, and now someone was actively searching for him again. But he didn't know who it was this time. Thorn Ridge and Bloody Peak never advertised their presence, this was someone new to the scene.

He folded the cheap paper and tucked it under his arm, tapping his fingers on his knees anxiously. For a second, he debated sharing his discovery, but he immediately shoved that thought down until it drowned in the darkness. He couldn't let this get out to anyone, no matter how much he trusted them.

He stayed quiet the rest of the drive back to his apartment, only speaking to give directions to avoid being recorded and to instruct All Might to park the truck behind the building, not in the parking lot.

"Midoriya? Are you alright?"

Izuku waved off his concern, "just fine, don't worry about me." He wasn't fine, but he had to keep this under wraps until he knew for sure what was going on. He hopped out of the truck, carefully closing the door behind him. "Thanks for the ride."

Already knowing why he had been asked to drive around the back, Toshinori shook his head in resigned acceptance. "You should stop climbing in through the window, you're going to hurt yourself."

"Psh, I'll be fine." Izuku shrugged, shoving the copy of Conspiracy into the waistband of his pants before grabbing onto the drainpipe, his fingers settling into divots he had left there from two years of scaling the metal. "Same time tomorrow, yeah?"

"Of course," Toshinori grinned, flashing a quick thumbs up. "Get enough sleep and no coffee!"

"Whatever you say, _dad."_ Izuku slapped his free hand over his mouth, his eyes wide behind the black lenses. "Pretend you didn't hear that."

"I don't think I can."

"Nhhh." Izuku frowned, hand still held over his mouth before he just shook his head, scuttling up the drainpipe with just the one hand and launching himself through the open window. Leaning out the window, he shouted, "bye!" before slamming it closed. The bright red on his cheeks would have been visible from almost the entire city were it not for the wall of the building behind his.

Toshinori waved awkwardly, "bye?" He shrugged, backing the truck out from behind the apartment building and heading home. Tomorrow was going to be very interesting.

* * *

The school days between the training were filled with Izuku's attempts to fine-tune his vision and hearing, and it wasn't a coincidence that he suddenly surged ahead to the top of the classes grades. He wouldn't call it _cheating,_ but it certainly wasn't playing fair. He'd started skimming the minds of his classmates and the teachers during tests, and lately, he had been attempting to see if he can scan only through single pieces of paper with his vision. Some things are easier to read than others once he's gotten through the top layers, probably something to do with the ink composition.

But he hates how the teachers have started praising him, talking about his potential as if him having a quirk suddenly makes him worth their time.

And Bakugou… now he knows that Izuku has only been using a fraction of his strength, but he hasn't said anything about it yet. Each time UA is mentioned, his thoughts come back around to how Izuku had saved his life without hesitation. He seems to know, seems to expect Izuku to make it to UA, and he hasn't so much as looked his way ever since he had saved his life from the slime villain. But his thoughts tell all, filled with anger at himself, but a sort of awe in Izuku's power.

And Izuku hates it.

There are only a few months until the exam, but he still can't believe that he's going. He's gone by UA at least once a week, scoping out every route there that won't catch him on camera. There's a worrying amount. He's beginning to consider bringing all of the security gaps to the school board and risk being filmed instead of letting there be a breach of security later on. If the gaps haven't been filled by the time the entrance exam rolls around, he'll do something about it himself.

Maybe stage a break in or something.

He tuned out the droning of the teacher at the whiteboard, instead focusing on the turmoil in Bakugou's mind.

 _He's not the pebble in my path, he's the mountain the damn path is carved into._

What. Izuku blinked rapidly behind the black plastic of his glasses, trying to make sense of what he had just heard. Bakugou's thoughts had been confusing and conflicted ever since he had saved him from that villain, but he hasn't _done_ anything about it. Izuku sighed softly, making up his mind to take the initiative for once.

He couldn't keep hiding from his problems like this. Well, this sort of problem couldn't be hidden from, but most others could be.

The moment the bell rang and the class was over, Izuku stood, blocking Bakugou's path. "We, uh, we need to talk."

Bakugou jammed his hands into his pockets, his gaze cast to the floor. "Yeah, we do."

The two waited for the classroom to clear, Bakugou's lackeys lingering for a moment before they were sent scurrying with one angry red glare. Once they were alone, Bakugou turned to face Izuku, a scowl on his features. "I wanted to say that… tch," he balled his fists, barely keeping his quirk in check. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry."

Izuku almost stopped breathing in shock, he hadn't been expecting this. "What?"

Bakugou kept his gaze on the floor, his thoughts a perfect mirror to his words. "I know I acted like a bastard, and I probably still will, but, I'm sorry." He had been thinking about how awful he had treated someone who only wanted to be his friend, and he only hoped that one day he would be deserving of forgiveness. "I don't want you to forgive me, but… whatever."

Izuku only had one question, the one _'why'_ that had followed him ever since he was first told he was quirkless. "Why did you do it? I only, I only ever wanted to be your friend. All those years, just... why?"

"...do you not get it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Always looking down on me, like I needed _help_ from someone like you." Bakugou scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "Well, you were right, okay? Happy now?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're better than me. You've always been." He shrugged, a sick look on his face as if the words pained him to say. "Even without that fucking quirk, you were always better than me."

Izuku stuttered, trying to find the words to counter that claim. "Kach- _Bakugou,_ I'm not, I'm not better than you. I'm just-

"Don't give me that shit. I've seen what you can do. I've seen that strength of yours, and you better fucking _make it_ into UA you loser." Bakugou saw him not as an enemy to crush, not as someone unimportant and certainly not as a friend, but as a worthy rival. Someone to continually match strength with for the rest of his life.

Izuku grinned shakily, "I'll, I'll do my best."

Bakugou stomped past him, checking him with his shoulder before leaving Izuku in the now empty classroom. "Me too, freak."

That was weird, wasn't it? Izuku gripped the straps of his backpack in shaking hands, turning to leave, his heart slowly listening with each step. Things were really changing for him, weren't they?

Now if he could only fix things with his mother.

But some things are easier to fix than others.

* * *

It's been almost five months now, and the dynamic has definitely shifted to what most people would call _casual._ Well, either casual or just plain weird.

Toshinori leaned against the side of the truck, watching clouds scurry across the sky before breaking the quiet with a question. "There was a dumpster that was overturned and went through outside my hero agency, do you have any theories on what might have happened?"

Izuku shrugged, the two tires he was carrying moving with the motion. "That was me, I went through your dumpster. Weird amount of glitter in there."

"You went through my trash?" His words had an almost offended tone, why would anyone even _want_ to go through his garbage?

"Please." Izuku rolled his eyes, dropping off the tires and immediately turning and stacking old computer monitors, carrying them to the truck. "I go through everyone's trash."

Toshinori signed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I want to ask why, but you'll have a reason that I won't be able to say anything against."

"Yep. I needed to make sure that people weren't throwing away paperwork with personal information or any tech that can be salvaged and mined for data. You know, make sure you don't have an info leak in the agency."

"Is there?"

"Yes, it's not a leak, but you never know when someone will turn traitor. Invest in a few paper shredders and enforce their usage." He paused, making sure to emphasize the next point. "Crosscutters, not strips. Strips can be taped back together _very_ easily." Izuku had set a personal record for reforming shredded documents at under two minutes per page, but he wasn't about to brag about that. There are some things you just don't share.

He shrugged, going back to work. "And I'm not sure what to do about the computers, I have a hard time with those. I would magnetize the motherboards though, or straight up launch them into the sun. You can't trust machines!"

With that, Izuku aimed a strong kick at one of the remaining computer monitors, crushing and shattering it under the force of the blow, the pieces flying off at just below a full hundred miles per hour.

Watching the pieces of plastic and metal fly away while Izuku grabbed his toe and hopped on one foot, Toshinori said, upbeat, "I agree with the not trusting machines sentiment. I actually turned the GPS on my phone off!"

"Amazing," Izuku deadpanned, limping back and moving the last load of garbage for the day into the truck. By his estimate, once those refrigerators were gone, he would be done within the week, and then the _real_ training would begin. Learning to fight from All Might himself? A once in a lifetime opportunity right there.

He closed up the truck's tailgate, looking out at the setting sun. "So my muscles do hurt, but, this is really weird, but my bones itch too."

"Did you just say that your bones itch?" Toshinori drew his brows together in confusion, how could someone's bones itch? That's just _wrong._

"Yeah, they're really _tingly._ There's no other word for it."

The hero shook his head, "I don't think I can help you with that." He didn't think he _wanted_ to help with that.

"I don't think you can either. Unless you could scratch my bones, and that's just terrifying. I might hate my bones, but I like them where they are."

"I agree, that's horrifying."

"I think it's the nerve damage." Izuku frowned, prodding at the muscles in his arms that were be screaming at him. "They're definitely sore, I just, my poor bones."

"..." Toshinori sighed, running a hand over his face in exasperation. "This is a weird tone to end the day on."

"Yep," Izuku nodded, watching as the sun crept closer to the horizon. "It sure is."

* * *

The moment that the light switched on, Izuku raised his mug of coffee in greeting. "This is good coffee."

"Gwah!" Toshinori barely managed to keep himself from powering up One for All, his nerves already shot as he stumbled back out of the kitchen. He stared, dumbfounded, at the teenager who had somehow appeared in his kitchen and was using his coffee maker as if this wasn't insane. How was this his life? It wasn't even eight yet!

"Good morning!" Izuku kept up his chipper attitude, grinning at All Might's plight. He still had a few weeks to go until he started actual combat training, but he had a question to ask and tracking All Might was easier than it should be.

Griping the doorframe to keep himself upright, Toshinori continued to stare as Izuku just waved back at him casually. "How did you get in my apartment!?"

"Please," he said, rolling his eyes. Izuku sipped at his stolen coffee, it was much higher quality than his own at home. Watching the steam rise for a moment, he answered the question he had been asked. "You don't have any security in your ventilation system."

"You… you came in through the vents?"

Izuku nodded, "yep. You should really do something about how large those vents are. I'm tempted to set up shop and move my things in there."

"Please don't."

Izuku pushed forward a second mug of coffee, sliding it across the table and gesturing towards the chair across from him. "I came because I have a question for you."

 _Oh no, what now?_ "Couldn't you have just called? You have my number, just use a payphone." Toshinori stepped up to the kitchen table, sitting across from Izuku and taking the coffee that had been made for him. "What did you need to know?"

"Well, payphones are almost always being filmed, so that's right out. But that's not why I'm here. So," Izuku sighed, taking off his sunglasses and setting them onto the table, focusing his gaze somewhere above All Mights left shoulder, black eyes accusing. "I have to ask, why did I get called to the office at school yesterday and get told that I had a new emergency contact? One Yagi Toshinori?" He raised his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes as he waited for an answer.

 _Oh, that._ Toshinori took a breath, trying to find the best way to explain himself. "Well, you said yourself that your father wasn't available and that your mother…"

Izuku shook his head, aggressively drumming his fingers on the table top, the wood beginning to dent under the repeated strikes. "That didn't mean that you can suddenly be my substitute dad!" Just because he had accidentally called him 'dad' didn't mean he was.

 _Shit. I should have asked first._ Toshinori gripped the coffee mug tightly, trying to defend his actions. "You still need adult supervision, this is just killing two birds with one stone."

"I'm not upset about this, it's just… I don't understand it?" The teen sighed, taking a long drink of coffee. He set the mug down, frowning at his warped reflection in the rippling surface of the beverage. "Why would you willingly burden yourself with me?"

"You're not a burden, Midoriya."

"That's not what my dad told me before he left and never came back." Izuku slapped his hand over his mouth, wishing he could take back what he had said, but it was too late.

"He said that?"

Izuku shrugged, he might as well overshare, he'd already started. "When I was six, he just… left."

"He was wrong, you know that, right?" "You're not a burden, you're… I know you might not want to hear this from me, but you're amazing. I don't know anything about raising a family, but if you were my son, I'd be proud of you."

"..." Izuku rubbed at his eternally dry eyes, pushing the hopeful feeling down in his chest and trying to drown it under the unavailable tears. "Wow, that was super sappy."

 _I see what you're doing boy._ Toshinori just shook his head, not calling the boy out on his poorly constructed ruse. _I'll let this slide. For now._

Izuku smiled weakly, keeping his gaze on his coffee. "Thanks."

* * *

"Can you read the minds of animals?"

Izuku looked up from the stacked refrigerators he was pushing, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration. "What?

"Animals. Can you read their minds," the hero asked once more, watching as the teenager suffered. After the conversation in his kitchen at seven am, the two had come to an understanding of sorts. Toshinori was slowly taking on the part of a worried parent attempting to connect with a distant teenager, but he didn't know that. And maybe it was a good thing. If he knew that was what was happening, he would immediately become the over supportive sort.

"Oh. Hold on." Izuku gritted his teeth, pushing the fridge to the truck. Breathing heavily, he rested his hands on his knees for a moment before straightening up and wiping the sweat from his brow. "Animals, huh?" He bent back down and lifted the first fridge, shoving it into the truck with ease, missing the proud expression on Toshinori's face. After he loaded up the second fridge, he closed the tailgate of the truck, leaning against it as he tried to explain how his 'mind reading' powers worked. "Sort of. Animals are weird, they don't think in words like people do. More concepts and feelings."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"It's a soft yes, it's like that one channel on the radio that's mostly static, and you're not sure if it's mariachi music or classical that's playing under the white noise, but it's still music. Or maybe it's a talk show!" Izuku slumped heavily against the tailgate, frowning slightly. "That metaphor got away from me."

"Huh," Toshinori nodded in understanding. "So it's open to interpretation then?"

"Basically. I've been bitten by a lot of cats. And a few deer."

"Wait, deer bite people?"

"Yes, they do. How do you not know that?"

"I don't go around antagonizing wild animals, that's how."

"Tch." Izuku rolled his eyes, looking out on the beach, now clear of garbage in only six months time. "Damn, that's a hell of a view, even in black and white."

"Well, don't get used to it, you've still got four months left!"

Izuku grinned broadly, adjusting his sunglasses. "Hell yeah."

"Watch your language."

"You can't _watch_ language."

"Don't sass me."

"I'm a child, I'm supposed to sass people."

"Good point." Toshinori shook his head, blond bangs hiding the grin on his face. "Why does every conversation turn into nonsense?"

Izuku shrugged, leaning further against the truck. "Who knows."

* * *

Sir Nighteye isn't sure _what_ he's walked into. After being unable to reach him by phone for the past _month,_ had come to visit All Might's agency and discuss the possibility of him training Togata Mirio. But _this_ is so far from what was normal that he could only stare in shock as a green haired teen wearing sunglasses managed to bodily throw the number one hero across the room with only one kick. He watched as the kick knocked All Might almost halfway through the wall that was behind him, the metal panels warping around him from the force of the kick.

Had All Might already passed on One for All? And to someone with such an… _unearthly_ and _unnatural_ presence? How could a child like that become the next Symbol of Peace?

"Oh my god! Are you dead?!" The boy screeched, fisting his scarred hands in his hair. "He's dead! I'm gonna have to leave the country! I'm gonna need to change my name and live on a farm raising ducks! I hate ducks!"

Wincing as he climbed back to his feet, Toshinori waved to catch the boys' attention. "Midoriya, my boy, you're spiraling again." He stepped back up to the padded mat in the center of the gym, stretching slightly as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Sure, using his quirk to train a teenager might be a little selfish, but he had a feeling this kid was going to do great things.

The green haired teen nodded, hands still twisted in his hair, eyes wide behind the lenses of his sunglasses. "Right. Are you sure you're not dead?"

Toshinori sighed, rubbing his temples in minor frustration. "I'm very not dead. You caught me off guard with that kick, that's all."

"Good, I really didn't want to have to find an info broker to set up a new identity. Did you know that half of the people that are being tracked by shadow operatives get killed in the public airport?"

"I… I didn't know that."

The boy gestured wildly, his voice the definition of excitement. "That's why you have to smuggle yourself onto a cargo ship inside of an oil drum, nobody ever expects that!"

This had gone on long enough, whatever it was, was stopping now. "Ahem."

"Shadow operative!"

With a screech, the boy jumped high enough to slam into the ceiling, crashing back to the floor where he scrambled to hide behind All Might, staring from around the hero with an unseen expression that Sir Nighteye had a feeling wasn't pleasant in the slightest.

"Oh, Sir Nighteye, I didn't… I didn't know you were coming today!" Toshinori looked off somewhere above his old sidekicks left shoulder, not sure how he was going to explain what was going on. Even he didn't know what was going on and this was normal for combat training.

From behind All Might, Izuku asked hesitantly, "so, _not_ a shadow operative?"

Toshinori nodded, "Not a shadow operative."

Sir Nighteye frowned, pushing up his glasses. "Well, I came to ask if you would consider Togata as a successor to One for All, but I see you already found one."

"Wait, a successor?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you saying _this,_ " Sir Nighteye gestured dismissively, "isn't your successor?"

Before All Might could say anything, Izuku shook his head, hoping to be just as rude as the hero was being right now. "Pass on that, I have enough problems. I don't need to deal with a two-hundred-year-old villain on top of-" Izuku cut himself off, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the interloper. "Hmm."

He lowered his sunglasses slightly, looking over them and watching Sir Nighteye closely. He knew of his record as a sidekick and his exemplary record as a hero, but there was something about reading records that just couldn't compare to reading a mind. "Are we _sure_ he isn't a shadow operative?"

Toshinori nodded, crossing his arms over his chest, not sure what was going to happen next. "Quite sure."

"Hmm." Izuku narrowed his eyes again, backing away and circling Sir Nighteye like a predator sizing up an intruder in their territory. He sifted through his mind with no finesse, not caring if his presence could be detected, retracting the moment he had what he was looking for. "I see. I guess I understand why you reacted with such... I can't find the right words. But you acted like a dick."

"Midoriya! Apologize!"

"I will not. You don't know what he was thinking." He shook his head, green curls bouncing around his face. "Very rude. just because someone isn't smiling doesn't mean they're not fit to be a hero."

Sir Nighteye watched the scene unfold, trying to figure out just how the two knew each other if Midoriya, was it? wasn't his successor. The overly familiar joking and bantering, the almost exasperated tone All Might had at times, the similarity in strength, and the black sclera. There was only one possibility left. "Are you this boy's father?"

Izuku's jaw dropped, and he almost fell back to the floor in shock. "What!?"

"Excuse me," Toshinori asked, not sure if he was supposed to be glad or worried that people thought he was Izuku's father. Yes, he liked to think of himself that way, but it might not be a good thing for others to agree with him.

"What?!"

"Midoriya, calm down please."

"WHAT?!" Izuku screamed while backing out of the room, hands fisted in his hair. He continued backing up, making his way towards the closest window by memory alone.

Turning to follow him and prevent another window disaster, All Might sternly said, "Midoriya, get back here, you're not climbing out the window again young man!"

"Going out the window, see you tomorrow!" With one hand still in his hair, he opened the window, raising it high enough to leave through.

"We're thirty floors up!"

"Bye!" Izuku sat on the windowsill, falling back and letting gravity take him.

"Oh my goodness." Toshinori rushed to the window, watching as Izuku grabbed onto the drainpipe with one hand, using the metal to direct his fall.

Sir Nighteye adjusted his glasses, watching through the open window as the teenager finally landed, a crater forming at his feet. "What just happened?"

"I… I'm not sure." This was normal now, but he still had no idea what he was supposed to do whenever Izuku jumped out a window or climbed into a ventilation shaft.

"Did he just jump out the window?"

Toshinori shrugged, "I think he technically backflipped, but yes."

"What on earth have you gotten yourself involved in?"

The hero sighed, rubbing his temples exhaustedly. "I ask myself that every day."

* * *

"Mom?"

Inko's eyes widened in shock, her gaze darting around the hall as she tried to find the source of the voice. "Oh, Izuku, I didn't know you were here."

Stepping fully from the shadows, Izuku kept his gaze on the hallway floorboards. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He adjusted his ever-present sunglasses, not missing the discomfort that rolled through his mother's thoughts at his sudden appearance. "Are you heading to work?"

"No, I just got back." Her tone was just on the edge of too sharp, neither of them knowing what to do now. It had been so long since they were even in the same room much less had an actual conversation that wasn't just empty greetings or Izuku being told his grocery money was on the kitchen counter.

Inko adjusted her grip on the strap of her purse, avoiding looking at her son. "Is there something you wanted to say?"

"I just… I'm sorry that I let things get like… _this."_ Izuku paused, unsure if he wanted to continue before steeling himself to at least _try_ to fix things. If he could begin to mend things with Bakugou, he could talk to his mother. "But… but I want to fix things."

"I don't know what happened to us. I'm your mother, I should have…" She trailed off, wiping at her eyes. _I should have been able to protect him._

"I... I just... I don't blame you, for…" Izuku paused gesturing to himself vaguely, trying to convey the concept of what Project Bloodlines had done without mentioning it. "For all this."

"Oh, Izuku!" Inko wiped away the tears that she hadn't even known were falling, standing and carefully crossing the room to stand before her son. "I'm, I'm so sorry, I've been an awful mother, but that's going to change."

She reached out carefully, taking one of Izuku's hands in hers. "I'll quit one of my jobs, and we can spend more time-

"Mom, that's... I don't want you to give up on your own opportunities just to try and fix things." Izuku rubbed his shoulder awkwardly, not sure how he hadn't managed to bring this up yet. "Besides, I'm, uh, I'm going to take the entrance exam to UA next week."

"You're going to take the exam?" Inko smiled shakily through her tears, she knew her son had always wanted to be a hero, and she had never really supported his dream. But to see that he still had that dream alive and hadn't let the world snuff out his hope was enough to prove how amazing he truly was. "Oh, Izuku, I wish you would have told me."

"Yeah, so do I." Izuku squeezed his mothers hand, the gap between them not yet beginning to shrink, but the distance able to be surmounted now that it had been brought to the light. "I wish things hadn't gotten to this point, but I guess there's nothing to be done about that."

Inko brushed her free hand across her son's cheek, wishing not for the first time she could look him in the eyes once again, but that was something she could never do. _I'm so sorry that I thought those things._

 _He's not a monster, he's an angel._

Izuku felt his cheeks burn, glad the low light hid his embarrassment. "Maybe don't go that far with the praise."

Inko pulled her hand back from Izuku's cheek, "oh, I keep forgetting…"

"Yeah." The teen rubbed at the back of his neck uncomfortably, his other hand still in his mothers grasp. "I know things have gotten bad, but, they can still get better. _I'll_ work to get better."

"I know you will," Inko pulled her son close for a brief embrace, noticing with a nearly broken heart how Izuku stiffened in her arms and barely tried to reciprocate. "You're going to be an amazing hero, Izuku."

Izuku cursed the eyes he had been given, forever dry and free from tears. His voice muffled by his mother's shoulder, he whispered, "I… I'll do my best."


	5. Chapter 5

"Go through the gate. Just go through the gate. Nobody is watching you, just go through the gate." But he didn't go through the gate, just continued pacing outside of it and watching others enter. He nervously brought his fingers to the brim of his hat, making sure his face was still shadowed and hidden. "God damn it."

"Move it freak!"

"Nyarg!" Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin, turning to see an irritated Bakugou behind him. "Oh, B- Bakugou, I didn't see you there." Hell, he didn't really see anything there, too caught up in his own anxiety to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Go in the fucking gate, you idiot. And fix your sunglasses before you make someone sick." Bakugou passed him, checking him with his shoulder as he did so. Themed to be a new habit of his that had developed the moment he realized it couldn't move Izuku from where he stood.

"Right. Right." Izuku licked his lips nervously, mouth almost bone dry from fear and nerves. Glancing around, he stepped up to the gate, holding his breath and squeezing his eyes shut, he crossed.

"Good job," Bakugou voice was laced with toxic venom, and even with his eyes closed, Izuku knew what sort of look was on his face. "You made it freak."

Izuku opened one eye, seeing a sneering Bakugou storm away once the explosive teen saw he was still alert enough to move without passing out.

"Huh, I did it." He took a breath, a small part of him waiting for someone, anyone, to realize that he wasn't normal. Waiting for someone to shout 'get out' or 'we don't want freaks here.' He grabbed the straps of his backpack tight enough for them to sting his hands and took a step forward. A step forward that got lost in translation, almost sending him straight to the ground.

"Gwah?" Izuku blinked behind his lenses, seeing the ground stop coming towards him as a floating sensation filled his guts. "Huh?" He looked up, seeing a girl with an honest smile and some of the most honest thoughts he had ever read.

"Oh, sorry for using my quirk on you." She touched her hands together, gravity taking ahold of Izuku and dropping him back to his feet. "It would be bad luck if you tripped!" _Even worse luck if you broke your nose!_

"Th- th- thanks," Izuku stuttered, feeling his cheeks burn furiously. ' _I talked to a girl!'_ He barely talked, I don't think it counts.

"Good luck!" The girl continued on her way to the room for the written tests, her thoughts focused.

Izuku straightened up, making his way to the examination room, glancing through the walls and trying to get a feeling for the building before giving up. It was just too big, and this was only one building!

Creeping into the room, he settled his things onto the desk closest to the window, tapping the glass to check the strength before turning and checking his exits and sight lines before finally sitting.

"Nice sunglasses."

"Meep!" Izuku turned and stared at the boy seated in the desk next to his own, their hair a color Izuku was sure was in the range of dark pink to light blue, and deep bags under his eyes that made it look as if he had never slept a day in his life. "Uh, thanks?"

The other teen nodded, leaning back in his seat and fidgeting with his sleeves nervously. He had only complimented on Izuku's sunglasses out of social obligation, but now that he had done it he was still just as awkward feeling as before.

Taking off his baseball cap, Izuku hung it over his knee, sitting in silence for a second before picking up where the other had left off. "Um, I'm Midoriya Izuku," Izuku offered a shaky smile, his fingers drumming anxiously on the table, slowly denting the wood under the force of it.

"Shinsou Hitoshi." Shinsou nodded, watching the dents appearing in the wood with a blank expression. Pointing out the growing damage, he asked calmly, "super strength?" _Some people have all the luck._

"Kinda?" Izuku shrugged, immediately lifting his hands away from the desk and nervously touching the arm of his sunglasses. "I can also make people vomit uncontrollably with about a second of eye contact."

"Pff!" Shinsou barely stifled a laugh, he knew he shouldn't judge someone based on their quirk, but that was just something else entirely. "Wow, that's terrible."

"Isn't it?" Izuku chuckled, relaxing into his seat finally.

The two shared a look before nearly collapsing in nervous and almost hysterical laughter, not seeing the glares and rolled eyes aimed in their direction.

As the laughter died down, Izuku squinted up at the whiteboard, trying to decipher what it said before giving up and leaning to the side with a question. "So, you wanna do the heroics?"

"...is that what you wanted to say?" Shinsou's surface thoughts were curious and filled with wry comedy, concepts slowly taking their form like lethargic bubbles popping in a pot of boiling tar.

Izuku shook his head, "no, it's not."

"But, yeah, I 'wanna do the heroics.'" Shinsou shrugged, he couldn't help what he wanted to be, could he? "Yeah, I know I might not have much of a shot, but I've still got to try, right?"

"Well, what's your plan of action?" Izuku had a plan; he had a plan that would either go well or literally blow up in his face. But he was curious about what other potential test takers would do compared to what they had planned to do. "What's the plan here?"

"Going after the one pointer robots and maybe the two pointers if I can get a piece of metal sharp enough." Shinsou had been working out some sort of strategy ever since he had first looked up the requirements for the entrance exam. But without exact facts, he wasn't sure how much good it would do him.

"Is your quirk not combat oriented?" Less than a second passes before Izuku waved his hands in front of himself awkwardly, stuttering and mumbling his apologies. "Sorry, that's really personal, you don't have to answer, I was just curious…" He trailed off if he really wanted to know he could just find out, but even after all of his practice he still felt bad about pawing through strangers heads to find out things he couldn't read on the surface.

"No, it's not." Shinsou rubbed at the back of his neck uncomfortably, his thoughts filled with echoes of past darkness. "It's, uh, it's brainwashing." _That's it; he's not going to want to keep talking to the villain. Good job Hitoshi, you scared him off._

Izuku took a moment to respond, recognizing too much of himself in those thoughts. "That's, that's super cool! You can take down villains without a fight! You can get terrorists to reveal bomb locations or get coordinates of kidnapping victims!" Izuku stopped, closing his mouth with a click of teeth, realizing he was getting too worked up.

 _He doesn't think it's a villains quirk? HE DOESN'T THINK IT'S A VILLAINS QUIRK?!_ Shinsou said nothing, but that line played on repeat in his head, his face blank while mentally screaming.

Thankfully the appearance of a hero whose quirk might be the power of being exhaustion personified stopped Shinsou's screaming. Izuku wasn't sure he could take much more of it without revealing he could hear thoughts by screaming back at him. Unfortunately, that hero appeared by slamming the door open so hard that the wall behind it cracked, getting the entire selection of test takers riled up.

"Everyone settle down now, it's test time."

The hero, and Izuku was sure that he recognized them from watching his neighbourhoods nightly patrols from the roof of the apartment complex, began walking down the rows of desks, dropping packets of paper at each desk. "Once I begin the timer, you may open your test packets. Not before, not after, no cheating, no answer sharing, no guessing." He droned on through the rules, making his way back to the front of the room and dropping heavily into the chair behind the desk and starting the timer. "Begin."

Izuku nearly tore the packet in half in his anxiousness to open it, immediately flipping to the first page and setting pen to paper. He knew that the hero had said no cheating, but if he couldn't get caught… he continued answering questions, keeping pace with the middle range of students and comparing the answers he had with the answers of the others.

The subjects went from basic mathematics and history to quirk legislation and historical moments in global quirk integration. It was surprising how many of the questions he was getting right on his own, and Izuku began to pull ahead of the rest of the students, not even caring if he was noticeable and breaking rank, he was getting over half of the questions right.

Before he knew it, the exam was over, and the hero was collecting the tests, pausing for a moment when he saw the ripped, bent and ink smudged monstrosity that Izuku handed him before shrugging and moving on.

"Get out," he said, taking the tests to the front of the room and stacking them on the desk. "You have five seconds to leave."

Izuku's eyes widened behind dark lenses, and he jammed his hat back on his head, picking up his things and grabbed Shinsou, dragging the brainwasher by the arm behind him and out of the room before those five seconds were up. There had been a real threat behind those words, and he wasn't taking any risks.

"What the hell, you're fast!" Shinsou straightened up, fixing his sleeves and staring at Izuku in surprise. He hadn't expected to be moved at such high speed.

"I'm not risking getting thrown out a window by a hero. Besides," he looked down at his watch, eyebrows nearly lifting into his hairline when he saw the time. "There's only three minutes to get to the auditorium!"

"Shit." Shinsou, stretched his arms above his head, getting ready to run. "Go, I'll try to catch up." He watched as Izuku blasted through the halls, wondering what it was about the unearthly presence the other had that was so welcoming to him.

* * *

Ahead of Shinsou, but behind many others, Izuku headed into the auditorium, flinching the moment he walked into the room. There were so many minds, all humming with excitement. Anxiety. Fear. Adrenaline. Confidence.

There was just so much emotion, and Izuku was thankful he wasn't an empath. But that didn't mean he didn't understand what was being felt. And while the feelings were awful, it was the overlapping thoughts of hundreds of people that was the worst part of it all.

 _God, I'm at UA!_

 _Is that Kimi from my old elementary school?_

 _Wow, that girl looks tough._

 _I don't have a chance._

 _What can someone with that kind of quirk do against robots?_

 _Did that little freak just try to look up that girls skirt?_

 _I can do this; I'm not scared._

 _I hope nobody gets hurt_

 _If I fail, I'll just go to General Education._

 _ **I'm better than all of these extras.**_

That was a familiar thought, one that Izuku knew well and was comfortable with.

Izuku latched onto Bakugou's thoughts, following his familiar self-conscious anger, barely keeping himself from covering his ears against the dual layers of sound and brain waves. But he knew that wouldn't work; you can't block out thoughts, he's tried to do it before.

"What's wrong with you, loser?"

Izuku sat, nearly whispering his reply "... there are so many people."

"What, it's not like you can read minds or anything like that." Bakugou kicked his feet up onto the table, moving to lean his chair back when he realized his question, though rhetorical, hadn't been answered.

"..." Izuku said nothing, and he only listened as Bakugou's thoughts correctly interpreted his silence. He hadn't expected to be able to keep his enhancements a secret around the explosive teen, there was a reason he was top of the class after all.

"Holy shit, tell me you can't read minds." Bakugou snorted, rolling his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. Of course, that freak has three quirks, isn't that just how it is? Always better than anyone else. Always fit to be a hero. "What the hell, you have three fucking quirks?"

"Kinda." Izuku was glad for the distraction from the rumble of thoughts, even if it meant explaining some of his secrets to Bakugou. His voice quiet, he did his best to explain. "The mind reading can't be turned off. Or the," he gestured to his sunglasses, not wanting to quantify exactly what he could do with his vision. "And the strength is constant too."

Bakugou sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. "You just have to be fucking perfect, don't you." He went silent as the lights lowered, the voice hero, and he only knew his tagline because that fucking freak would always gush about the local heroes whenever he had the chance. Present Mic stepped up to the elaborate podium, and Bakugou just leaned back in his seat, ready for anything.

"Welcome to the performance! Everybody say hey!"

The auditorium went so quiet it was almost possible to hear the movement of the air currents, Present Mic looking dejected for only a moment before continuing, his entire attitude excited and energetic. "Well, that's okay little listeners! I'm here to give the guidelines for the practical! If you're ready, then put your hands up!" Present Mic threw one of his hands up, not letting the silence get to him. "YEAH!"

"Wow, Present Mic acts just the same outside of the studio as he does in it!" Izuku's eyes were wide behind his lenses; his hands pressed to his mouth in an attempt to quiet his whispers. "It's so wild that all of UA's teachers are heroes!" But wasn't that a security risk? Did they even have the right licensing for teaching? What if there's a villain attack that needs them? Do they just leave and-

"Shut up, freak." Bakugou elbowed Izuku in the side, cutting off the storm of mumbling that the other didn't even know was happening.

Izuku continued muttering under his breath, nervously drumming his fingers along with the rhythm of Present Mic's explanation. Every so often he would glance down at the handout, trying to read the semi-faded ink before giving up and just listening to the presentation and the voice heroes' surface thoughts. He tried to watch the projection on the screen behind him, but without the image actually being physically manifested, he only saw a smudge of different shades of grey.

 _This doesn't look right._ Izuku focused on the thought that stood out from the rest, authoritative and loud in a way that couldn't be described. "Excuse me!" One of the examines in the middle section shot to his feet, hand raised high as if he was in a classroom. "May I ask a question?"

"What do you need, listener?"

"You said there are three varieties of false villains; however, on this handout, there are no fewer than _four!_ This error, if it is an error, is highly unbecoming of the hero academy held as the ideal for all education facilities!"

Turning to face Izuku with a glare, the boy continued. "And you, with the sunglasses and baseball cap! You've been muttering and making noises the entire time! It's distracting. If this is some sort of game to you, then please leave and let those who are serious about this continue in peace!"

"Nhhh!" Izuku gritted his teeth, glaring from behind his lenses. It wasn't like he _wanted_ to be muttering and fidgety, he just couldn't control it. But some people just can't handle those that don't fit perfectly into the mold of a hero.

"Alright, alright." _Wow, that kid is uptight._ Contrary to his thoughts, with his actions, Present Mic kept himself upbeat and enthusiastic. "Nice catch, examinee 7111! But the fourth villain type is no typo, it an obstacle that gives zero points! Have any of you kids played Super Mario Brothers? It's kinda like the Thwomp, a gimmick that will rampage in close quarters." _Just wait for them to get a load of what it_ _ **really**_ _is like._

"I see. I apologize for my interruption!" The boy bowed deeply before returning to his seat, his thoughts satisfied with his answer.

Present Mic waited for the muttering to die back down before wrapping up the announcements. "That'll be it from me, and I'll leave you with our school motto." As the auditorium went quiet, all the potential students on the edges of their seat, the voice hero cleared his throat subtly, playing up the drama before beginning to speak once more. "The hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat.'"

"Plus Ultra!" He clapped, watched the students file out of the auditorium, an excited murmur rippling through the crowd. "Break a leg, everyone!"

Izuku wasn't sure Napoleon could be considered a hero, maybe a conqueror or an invader or even a grave robber, but certainly not a hero. He hadn't known that's where the motto had come from, and it was just odd to think about now that he knew. Shrugging, he carefully made his way out of the auditorium, checking to see if Shinsou had already left before heading out towards the testing grounds.

* * *

Izuku had changed into his tracksuit in record time, the black Adidas neither the most popular not the least, but perfectly average. Just how he liked it. Average was his shield, his cloak of invisibility. People like average. Average is easy, and average is forgettable.

He took a calming breath that had no effect and glanced around anxiously, unconsciously trying to find a familiar face in the sea of strangers.

There, at the front of the group, the girl who had kept him from falling and breaking his nose! Amongst the rising tide of thoughts, her mind was focused and calm, a beacon that Izuku needed to get closer to.

He took a step, willing his hands to stop shaking. He reached up to adjust his sunglasses, the movement aborted when he remembered that he had left them with the rest of his things. But at least he still had the baseball cap to hide his eyes. Izuku shook his head, the trembling in his hands not stopping even as he continued walking.

"That girl seems to be doing some sort of meditation." The moment the hand landed on Izuku's shoulder, he nearly jumped out of his skin as he acted on the fight or flight instinct he had honed for the past two years. "Why are you here? Were yo-

The boy's sentence was cut off by a grunt of pain, Izuku having chosen fight instead of flight, lifting his knee and carefully kicking backward into the others shin, sending them back about a foot. Izuku spun around, keeping his gaze on the ground and adjusting the baseball cap to keep his eyes in shadow while sifting through the others mind with next to no finesse.

As the other boy, _Iida Tenya,_ Izuku thought, remembering what he had just learned, climbed back to his feet, an unhidden look of suspicion on his face. Around the two, the thoughts of the crowd varied wildly, from support for his actions to apathy, and even believing that he really was just there to throw others off of their game.

 _Let's get this show on the road. Time for the first lesson on heroics!_

Izuku couldn't pinpoint where the thought was coming from, but that was definitely the thoughts of Present Mic once again. He was excited about something and beginning a countdown, so Izuku took that as his cue to go. Spinning his cap back, Izuku turned away from the other teen, stepping back and away from the other, he headed towards the back of the group, dropping into a squat as he listened to the countdown that no one else could hear.

From the rooftop, the silent countdown reached zero, Present Mic loudly calling out, "and START!" While Izuku readied himself, the examinees all froze, looking up at the voice hero in disbelief. Present Mic threw his hands up, "what, you won't get a countdown in a real fight!"

As the group of test takers all pushed against each other in their rush, Izuku finally acted, launching off the ground and leaping over the crowd, slamming over ten feet ahead of them and approaching the first robot he saw.

A one-pointer, extremely fast, but fragile armor. His carefully laid plan was immediately discarded, Izuku stared through the metal searching for the weakest point before grabbing it by the machine gun in its arm and pulling the arm off in one motion. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he shoved his other hand into the circuitry of the weapon, and without the shutdown signal from the robots' circuits, the machine gun began to fire, shredding the bot it had been attached to and turning it into so much scrap.

With a wild grin, he rushed towards the next cluster of approaching robots, bracing his stance and firing wildly until he was out of ammo, the six barrels containing to spin and beginning to overheat. He extracted his hand from the circuitry, grimacing at the torn skin on his hands before he shook off the pain. He dropped the now useless gun, shaking his head.

He needed more points. He couldn't get in with only twelve. In his hunt for points, he nearly collided with a familiar, tired face.

Izuku grinned, flat black eyes not showing his excitement, "Shinsou, you're here too?"

The brainwasher nodded, a sharp spike of metal in his hand and a bruise forming on his cheek. "What happened to your hand?"

Izuku glanced at his hand, looking at it in surprise as blood rolled down his fingers and dripped to the pavement. "Nnnh. That's not good." He shrugged, brushing off the others concern and kept his eyes fixed ahead as the two moved through the fake city. "How about you? Take out any robots yet?"

"Technically? No. But two of the one pointers crashed into each other when they came after me." Shinsou brushed the bruise on his cheek, he had nearly gotten his head taken off in the robots collision. If he hadn't ducked in time, he wouldn't be here.

Understanding what Shinsou wasn't saying, Izuku said blandly, "the one pointers have a weak spot in the torso, just above the wheel." He had been checking all of the robots for weaknesses as he shot them up, and he had found plenty of them. He looked for the next possible targets, moving the moment he saw them.

Shinsou nodded, following Izuku towards the next group of robots. "And the others?"

"The two pointers have a large cluster of exposed wiring at the base of the tail, and as for the three-pointers," Izuku pulled back his bloody fist, taking aim at the approaching three-pointer. "The hand," he ducked said hand, stepping close to make his point. "While strong and slow, hides an easily destroyed head!" With a signal strike, the metal around the robotic brain crumbled like tissue paper, sparks surrounding the entire body of the bot until it slumped over and went still.

"Holy shit." Shinsou watched the display of raw power in awe, the information that Izuku had dropped sinking in. "Wait, they all have weak points built into them?"

Izuku nodded, shaking the blood off of his battered knuckles, dull grey metal peeking through his tattered skin. "This isn't just a test of strength."

"It's also one of tactics," Shinsou said, completing Izuku's line of thought. "Will you…" he trailed off, unsure if this was the right thing to ask. _Will you help me?_

With a grin, Izuku nodded once more, flexing his bloody hands. "Let's make you a hero, yea?"

"You're crazy." Shinsou shook his head, turning towards the next robot. "Don't steer me wrong, alright?"

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Izuku cupped his still bleeding hands around his mouth, calling out tips as Shinsou approached the robot. "Use the spike and gouge the tire, then go for the weak point!"

Shinsou followed the directions he had been given, sinking the spike into the rubber of the tire, the robot spinning out of control and skidding to a halt. The brainwasher ran to where it had stopped, using the spike to completely sever the torso from the base, the robot powering down with a whine. "Oh my god!"

"Two-pointer, right behind you!"

Shinsou barely managed to duck the sweeping tail, stabbing at the base of the metal weapon and tearing through the clustered wires, the joints of the robot freezing up as its momentum carried it into an approaching one pointer, both of the robots engulfed in an explosion. "That's six!"

As Izuku called out instructions, Shinsou followed them, and whenever other examinees passed their location, they just continued on their way, not wanting to get involved in the showers of metal and sparks and the crazed looking boy commanding the show and shouting out advice mixed with compliments. "You're up to twenty-three!"

"That's it? That's nowhere near enough!" Shinsou panted, his hands on his knees as the final robot fell. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a bruised hand, straightening up and looking for more robots. "I need more points!"

"Calm down; you're golden." Izuku had been having a hard time hearing their thoughts with the distance, but the test proctors have definitely been interested in Shinsou's progress, even saying something about 'rescue points' when he had kept a robot from attacking another test taker from behind. With a shrug, Izuku pointed towards the next cluster of incoming robots. "But if you're ready, behind that building should be more, I'm going to try to get more points too." He turned, the two heading opposite directions but still taking the same path.

Izuku made his way to the center of the fake city, watching the destruction unfold before him. The nice girl was there, as was the boy who seemed convinced that Izuku was only there to cause trouble.

 _It's time to get the real test started._ The thought wasn't entirely human, but it was commanding, reaching over the entire campus with ease.

Moments after the thought had passed, there was a rumbling below ground, and Izuku watched with mild horror as an impossible mass of metal rose from below the city center, its flat, robotic face filled with red camera lenses. The zero pointer, the obstacle, the stage hazard, the gimmick. Whatever it was, it was nearly twice as tall as the surrounding buildings, and it thundered towards the test takers, metal hands ready to flatten anything they could reach.

Buildings were crushed under the force of its movements, the treads it used to move ripping up the pavement with every rotation. The furrows it left behind took up the entire street, gouging deep enough to reach the soil beneath.

As others turned and ran, Izuku could only stare. Something didn't feel right about this.

"Oww," there was a moan of pain from where the robot would be next, and Izuku darted forward, passing the crowd of students and leaving behind shattered concrete.

He skidded to a stop, dropping down to his knees beside the girl who had helped him earlier on. Zeroing in on the rock crushing her ankle, he wedged his hands under it, lifting it and tossing it aside with nearly no effort.

"Are you okay," he asked, his gaze landing on the ankle that he now realized was completely shattered. "Nevermind, stupid question. Your ankle is broken, so," he stood, turning towards the approaching zero-pointer, searching for weak points with his vision. He couldn't get the girl out of the danger zone in time, and he only had one option left. Turning his baseball cap back forward, he stepped away from the girl. "Just stay there."

Once he was where he needed to be, Izuku dropped into a squat, muscles flexing before his augmented tendons contracted with as much force as possible, a world-shattering pain spreading through his legs as he launched himself at the chest of the robot. His bloody fingers sank inches into the metal, and he hauled himself up to the first robotic eye, his blood painting the metal surface with each movement.

With a bloody fist, he slammed into the glass, cracking it and sending it down to the ground below. Continuing his assault, he punched wildly, creating an entrance before crawling into the now exposed circuitry and pulling every wire he could get his hands on. Every movement of his limbs was excruciating, but he kept going, moving through the inside of the robot before kicking outwards, knocking panels off of the robot's armor from within.

Electricity ran up and down his body, the metal in his bones conducting the energy through him, the blood only helping. With his teeth gritted, Izuku grabbed a bundle of wires attached to the core of the robot and pulled, shredding them in his hands as the robot suddenly stiffened and locked around him. Punching and kicking, he managed to fight back to the outside, suddenly dropping through thin air, twisting as he fell. Somewhere along the fall, someone tried to stop him, but he was falling faster than a normal human, falling _too_ fast, and he landed hard enough to create a crater around him. Staggering back to his feet, the buzzer sounded, the test was over.

Izuku stood in the middle of a crater nearly half a meter deep and a full meter wide, blood gushing from his shattered skin, the metal of his knuckles exposed to the world. A picture more at home at a horror movie than a hero academy. He tried to step forward from the crater, but could only collapse in a heap, the muscles in his legs shredded and only connected to his tendons and ligaments by the barest of threads.

 _He jumped right in at that zero-pointer!_

 _He literally jumped into it!_

 _How did a kid with a great quirk like that become such a twitchy mess?_

 _Was it an act?_

 _Was he just trying to throw us off?_

 _He jumped in to save that girl!_

 _He saved my life!_

 _He didn't hesitate, not at all!_

* * *

Across the campus in a darkened room filled with a wall of screens, the footage was being played back over and over again. The screen was filled with empty black eyes before it was replaced with a bloody fist and the screen went black.

"It's been a while since anyone managed to take out the zero-pointer."

"He managed to rip out its power supply and destroyed over," there was a tapping at a screen, and they read off the statistics of the zero-pointer. "Over thirteen percent of the circuitry with just a few hits."

"It's almost as if he knew where to attack."

"What's that boy's name?"

"Uh, hold on," there was a shuffling of papers in the darkness, "ah, Midoriya Izuku. Says his quirk is… General Enhancement. That's really vague."

"Whoever he is, I'll be very interested in his education here at UA."

* * *

Back at the testing grounds, test takers were crowding around the crater, trying to get a good look at who had stopped the zero-pointer in its tracks.

"It's all alright now, yes. Well done, good work." An elderly woman, shrunken by her time on this earth, moved towards the two injured middle schoolers. "Here, have a gummy," she passed gummy candy to the uninjured children, finally reaching the crater's edge.

"That mademoiselle," a blond boy that literally sparkled with every movement answered the question on the mind of the crowd around them. "She's the backbone of this institution!"

"Oh my, now this." The youthful heroine shook her head as she looked over the damage Izuku had done to himself. "I've never seen a backlash quite like this. What did your quirk do to you?"

Izuku pushed himself into a seated position, bracing himself against the wall of the crater. "Please," he lifted a shaking and bloody hand, pointing to the girl he had saved. His black eyes cast down, heavily shadowed under the brim of his cap, he said quietly, his words still carrying across the crowd, "help her first."

"How noble of you." Recovery Girl nodded, slowly making her way towards the girl and pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. "How's your ankle now, dearie?"

"It's, it's great!" The girl staggered to her feet, tentatively putting weight on her ankle before stumbling back and leaning against the nearest light post. "But now I'm so tired."

"You'll be fine, just rest up now." Recovery Girl pressed a handful of gummies to her palm. "Here, have some gummies."

The sparkling blond continued his explanation for the crowd that had stayed around the crater. "Her quirk is a super healing factor. It's because of her presence that the school can have such rigorous examinations."

Recovery Girl carefully made her way through the rubble surrounding the crater, "now, it's your turn young man."

Izuku nodded, pulling himself out of the crater and seating himself on the broken edge, his destroyed legs dangling in the rubble created by his fall. Recovery Girl tipped back Izuku's baseball cap and pushed back his hair before planting a kiss to his forehead.

"You'll be fine, just get plenty of rest now." She turned as the soft tissues of Izuku's limbs healed themselves, the muscles flexing as they pulled back into place and the skin over his exposed bones reknitting itself before finally closing with the barest minimum of scars. "Any other injured children?"

As the crowd slowly thinned, Izuku headed back to the locker he had left his things in, not seeing the many pairs of eyes that followed his path.


	6. Chapter 6

It was only a few days after the exam when the nerves really set in, Izuku tracing his new scars while pacing through the apartment. After about an hour of pacing his mother would generally try to catch his attention and find something for him to do, but today she was working a double shift, and Izuku's anxiety was only growing.

He was confident that he had gotten in, his rescue points would all but guarantee that, but he couldn't help but second guess everything he had done.

Not wearing his sunglasses, kicking the other boy, helping Shinsou, even saving that girl. Could he have done things better? Would being selfish have changed his score?

With a frustrated sigh, Izuku grabbed his wallet and beeper, pulling on a dark green baseball cap before he left and locked the door behind him. He needed to get out for a bit before he drove himself crazy with his anxiety. Keeping an eye on the traffic cameras and assorted recording devices, he headed down towards the newsstand, hoping that the latest issue of Off the Record could cheer him up. There was supposed to be an exposè on the collapse of the Second Great American Confederacy and the part that quirks had played in the liberation of its people.

Even if it couldn't take his mind off of his worries, at the very least, he could get a good kick out of a poorly sourced article. Keeping his eyes on the pavement, he pulled out his wallet as he approached the newsstand, exact change at the ready. Just like always.

Sure, keeping his newsstand habits predictable wasn't the best idea, but he needed some stability.

Once the cheap piece of print was in his already ink smudged grasp, he continued to walk, his nose buried in the paper while he managed to check ahead of himself still, looking past the article every few moments. He hadn't even realized where he was heading until he was there, staring up at the agency building. He had gotten used to jumping out of its windows, even if it was only from thirty floors up.

Izuku shrugged, rolling the cheap paper and shoving it into the pocket of his hoodie, already hauling himself up the drainpipe the moment his hands were free. He wasn't wasting any time; he had a ventilation system to get into.

* * *

Crawling forward and pulling himself with his elbows, izuku finally approached his destination, peering through the grate into All Mights living room. Carefully, Izuku removed the grate from within the vent, fingers digging into the metal, warping it slightly as he prevented it from clattering to the floor. With almost no sound, he slid from the vent, still holding on to the edge to keep from slamming to the floor and alerting All Might to his presence.

Izuku carefully set his feet on the carpet of the living room, shoving the vent cover back in place before realizing it was too bent to stay. "Shit," he muttered, straightening the metal the best he could, hoping it would work. He gingerly placed it back over the ventilation shaft, breathing a sigh of relief when it stayed.

Slowly, he backed away, keeping an eye on the vent for a few more moments before he dared to turn away and head into the kitchen. A quick glance through the walls showed that All Might was still unaware of his presence, and Izuku decided to change that by knocking on the table as he approached. "Coffee."

All Might flinched, spinning around from the coffee maker, ready to fire up One for All if necessary. But the moment he saw that it was only Izuku, he let out a sigh of relief, turning back to the coffee maker and filling a second mug. "Haven't I told you to stop doing that?"

"Yes, exactly thirty-seven times." Izuku took the second mug, reaching into his hoodie pocket and pulling out his now smashed copy of Off the Record, reading through the article he had been looking forward to.

"Hmm, feels like more." Toshinori knew why Izuku was here, but he couldn't share the scores of the exam with him, no matter how much he wanted to. No matter how proud and impressed he had been at their rescue points and how proud he had been when he had seen that the boy had willingly given up his chance at a higher score just to help a stranger do better. "You know I can't tell you how you did."

"I know. I've just been stressing about it." Izuku took a sip of the coffee, calming by increments as the caffeine began to work its magic. "Besides, mom's at work, and I've been… Hmm." He carefully folded the nearly destroyed issue of Off the Record, setting it down on the tabletop. "I wanted to thank you for, for helping me and giving me this opportunity."

"Well, that's. That's," Toshinori wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, there wasn't exactly a how-to guide for this sort of thing. He wasn't sure how people were supposed to parent, but it certainly wasn't like this. "You don't need to thank me."

"I know." Izuku shrugged, adjusting his sunglasses. "Besides, it's sunday, we spar on sundays, remember?"

"I remember." And in all honesty, Toshinori had expected Izuku to ambush him in the gym this time around, not in his kitchen again. He had let his guard down, but next time he would be prepared. At least he hoped he would be. "Finish up your coffee then, and we can go down to the gym."

"Nice." Izuku all but chugged the coffee, ignoring the indigent sound All Might made in reaction to the atrocity happening in his kitchen. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Izuku narrowed his eyes. "What."

Toshinori looked away from the disaster of a teenager, "nothing."

"Uh huh." Izuku stood, taking the now empty coffee mug to the sink and quickly washing it. "So you _don't_ think I just committed a crime against coffee?" He carelessly dried his hands on his jeans, picking up the folded issue of Off the Record and put it back in his pocket.

"Well, maybe not those exact words, but close enough."

"Alright, you're not exactly wrong. I have no manners, and my social skills are comparable to those of a rabid sewer rat." With that, Izuku left the kitchen, heading back to the vent he had come in through.

"Don't go in the vent," Toshinori said exasperatedly.

"I have to." Izuku pulled off the vent cover, tucking it under his arm while pulling himself back into the ventilation shaft. "After all, it would be very suspicious if the security cameras on this floor saw me came out of the front door but had never actually been seen going in in the first place." Grinning, Izuku pulled the vent cover back into place, slowly shimmying back until he was hidden by the shadows within the metal.

With a loud sigh, Toshinori shook his head. "I hate that you're right about that."

From somewhere within the wall, Izuku called out, "you'll find I'm right about most things!"

Toshinori rubbed his temples, what had he been thinking training this kid?

* * *

"Now, hit me with your best shot." Toshinori had fired up One for All at nearly the exact moment Izuku had tumbled out of the ceiling vent in the gym, prepared to ramp up the boys training.

Izuku blinked slowly, scratching at the scars on his knuckles. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but still do it."

Izuku shook his head, pulling back a scarred fist before putting as much power as he dared behind it and letting it fly. But where he had aimed was now only empty air, the looming presence of All Might having moved behind him. Instinctively, Izuku kicked backward, again, only meeting empty air.

Each and every one of his strikes hit nothing, all the while, the thoughts he could perceive gave him no insight on what was coming next.

But then came the randomly thrown objects and it clicked.

Oh. Now he understood what was going on. Multi-sense training. He couldn't rely on getting insider hints to fights, and he couldn't let himself get distracted in the middle of a battle.

Izuku gritted his teeth, continuing to chase All Mights movements with flying fists and feet, ducking the random projectiles and using his vision to check their contents, trying not to get thrown off by the sensory overload.

He dodged a telegraphed punch, internally screaming. "You know!" Another ducked punch followed by a box holding a single egg. "You could have," this time it was Izuku throwing a punch that was easily dodged. "Just said this is what we were doing!"

"Where's the fun in that!" Toshinori barely held in a laugh, dodging a sloppily thrown kick.

"This is not fun!" Izuku ducked, twisting around and finally managing to land a hit. Unfortunately, it was only on his arm. And it also had no impact, so small victories that aren't really victories.

"Don't lie; this is fun!"

"You're the one lying," Izuku dropped into a squat, popping back up and twisting in the air and dropping back down with one leg extended, managing to catch All Might in the shoulder. "What's next, mentally screaming?"

"Wait, hold on." Toshinori signaled for a timeout, looking at Izuku with confusion while rubbing at the bruise already forming on his shoulder. "Does the mentally screaming thing actually, you know, mess with telepaths?"

Izuku stared in disbelief, not sure where the breakdown in understanding was coming from. "... _yes._ You're screaming, who wouldn't be affected by that?"

"But it's mentally."

"And I still hear it," Izuku said slowly. What wasn't being understood here?

"How many people do the whole, 'time to check for mind readers,' thing whenever they're in a crowd?" Toshinori had definitely done that at one point, but that was before he actually had met any telepaths.

"Too many." Izuku wiped the sweat from his brow, frowning slightly. "At least ten at a time."

"That sounds annoying."

"Imagine ten people screaming in your ear at top volume randomly."

"Oh, when you put it that way." Toshinori shook his head, appalled at the thought of what was a joke for most people being a living hell for those who could read minds.

Izuku raised a hand, "hold on. I'm gonna grab a glass of water, be right back." He ducked out of the training room and into the small kitchen, opening the window and getting some fresh air before grabbing a glass off of the countertop and filling it at the sink. He chugged the glass, wiping his face on his sleeve before filling the glass again.

 _Who is that? They look scary!_

Shock flooding his system, Izuku stopped, still holding the glass under the faucet, water beginning to overflow as he tried to pinpoint where the thoughts were coming from.

 _Sir said they were imposing, but I didn't believe him!_

Izuku slowly set down the water glass into the sink, turning off the faucet and lowering his sunglasses. _Where is that coming from,_ he thought, backing away from the sink, looking through the floor and finding a patchy spot. As if something was superimposed through the concrete. "...what the hell," he muttered, suddenly realizing there was a someone in the floor. There was a _face_ in the _floor._

"Oh shit!" Izuku rapidly began stomping where the face was, not trusting _anything_ that was coming up from the floor.

They were thirty floors up, how the hell were they even doing this?

"Midoriya?" Toshinori looked into the kitchen nearly recoiling in shock and terror at the sight that greeted him. "What are you doing?!"

"Someone!" STOMP "In!" STOMP STOMP "The!" STOMP "Floor!" STOMP STOMP STOMP

"..." Toshinori just stared, taking a moment to process everything. "I… I don't have anything to say to that." He continued to stare, suddenly realizing what was happening. "You should probably stop doing that."

"No!" Izuku continued his stomping barrage, "shadow operative!"

"No, successor," the fading hero loudly countered, finally making the connection between 'someone in the floor,' and the recommended successor with a phasing quirk that Sir Nighteye had mentioned.

Izuku froze, one foot still lifted and ready to slam back down. "...oh." He stepped back, lowering his foot. "Well, why didn't you just say that?"

Toshinori threw his hands up, "I didn't think I had to!"

Izuku shook his head, raising one finger as he imparted a piece of advice. "Always assume that I need to be told what's going on, you know that my memory sucks."

"Um, excuse me?" A confused voice piped up from the floor where one Mirio Togata now sat, his thoughts in turmoil. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was fairly certain that this wasn't normal. Too bad that he was wrong and this was a normal as it got around those two.

"No," Izuku snarked, adjusting his sunglasses and peering over the black plastic to get a better look at the successor Sir Nighteye had sent. Had sent with no warning on what might be waiting for him. Really, that was just irresponsible.

With a long-suffering sigh, Toshinori shooed Izuku towards the kitchen door. "Midoriya, I think Togata had been through enough at your hands, don't you?"

"You mean at my feet?"

Toshinori gave a long-suffering sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Not the time for wordplay."

"It's always time for wordplay," Izuku grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and backing out of the kitchen. He kept his vision trained on his mentor and the one who was likely to become his true successor. He didn't want to read too much into his own emotions, but he knew he didn't like the idea of having to play nice with someone that was more _worthy_ than himself.

It wasn't just about them being more worthy, it was how they were allowed to just insert themselves into a situation that didn't belong to them, and he couldn't even complain about it because they were going to be a hero that the world needed.

And Izuku had to admit that they didn't seem like they even knew what they were intruding into. From what he could read, they were honest, compassionate, an all-around hero type. Save the day with a smile and be the pillar of the community that the people needed. Izuku couldn't exactly be mad at someone for just wanting to help people, but he could sure try to.

But if he was sure about one thing, it was that he was going to enjoy this.

* * *

Mirio wasn't sure what Midoriya's deal was, but the green-haired teen seemed to be purposely trying to make him uncomfortable. Staring from behind black plastic with an unreadable expression, and shaking his head derisively each time Mirio said so much as a single syllable around him. And now that All Might had ducked out of the room, it was just uncomfortable.

Sir Nighteye had said that Midoriya was hard to get a read on, but that had been a drastic understatement. It was as if he had cultivated an aura of _average_ and made sure to never step out of it.

"Hi, I'm Mirio!" He extended a hand only to be stared at until he retracted it.

"Why?"

Mirio blinked in confusion, not sure what was happening. "Excuse me?"

"Midoriya Izuku," Izuku muttered, crossing his arms and continuing to stare.

"So, Midoriya-kun… how do you… know All Might?" Mirio avoided the gaze that he couldn't actually see, the air all but boiling around the younger teenager.

Izuku shrugged, adjusting his sunglasses and flipping through Mirio's thoughts like pages of a book. "Surrogate father."

"Oh. Alright." Mirio now had more questions than answers. How does someone end up with All Might as a surrogate father?

Izuku snorted, covering his mouth with his hand. The scenarios Mirio was coming up with were absolutely ridiculous, entertaining, but still ridiculous. His favorite might be him being some sort of troubled vigilante that had been taken in off the streets and trained to be a real hero.

Mirio watched as Izuku pushed his sunglasses up into his hair, finally getting a glimpse of the dark circles under his black eyes. Immediately, he only had one question. "How much do you sleep at night?"

Izuku shrugged before rolling his shoulders back and dropping down to begin his pushups. "Three hours. Nonconsecutive."

"Only three hours?" Mirio just couldn't believe it. _How do you live like that?_

"Easily." Izuku talked through his set, keeping a mental count of his reps. "I usually go to bed at ten, stare at the ceiling until twelve, sleep until two, wake back up and then get back to sleep at four, and I'm back up at five."

"That sounds terrible!" Mirio froze, one of his hands still raised in the air as he processed what had just happened. "Wait a minute."

"What." Izuku shook his head, sweat dripping down his face as he continued.

Mirio slowly pointed at Izuku with shaking hands. "You just answered a question."

"Yes, I did."

"A question that I hadn't asked yet."

Izuku rolled his eyes, pushing through the fiftieth rep. "What's your point here."

"Can you read minds," Mirio asked excitedly. He had never met someone with actual mind reading before. _Is that the right term for it? Mind reading?_

"Yes. that's the right term for it." Izuku pushed himself towards the end of his set, ignoring Mirio's excited outburst beside him. With shaking arms, he pushed past the sixtieth repetition, the weight in his bones not really helping him out at all. "Hever, some others prefer telepath, or maybe they like empath, or there are those that prefer ESPer, so don't bandy 'mind reader' around as a catch-all for mental based quirks."

Passing his seventieth push up, Izuku dropped down to the floor, rolling onto his back and trying to work some feeling back into his numb arms.

Mirio pointed at Izuku's scarred hands, seeing scars that continued up and under the cuffs of his hoodie. "How did you get all those scars?"

Izuku flicked his sunglasses back down over his eyes, "I'd prefer not to answer that."

"Oh, sorry." Mirio looked away awkwardly, "personal question?"

"Yes." Izuku climbed back to his feet, rolling his ankles and trying to stretch out his muscles. Abruptly changing the subject, he asked, "what's your record in the fifty-meter dash?"

"Uh, about ten seconds?" Mirio frowned, "why?"

Izuku jerked his head, meandering to the track that surrounded the gym, setting up the sensor that could accurately capture his top speed and time. He only used it because it wasn't on any network and couldn't record images. "How about this; if you can beat me, you can actually talk to me, and I'll answer your questions." He dropped down into a sprinters start, getting his feet into the blocks and barely hiding the grin on his face. There was no way in hell Mirio would beat him, but Izuku had something in the works. Izuku waited until Mirio was in place before beginning the countdown. "Ready?"

"Ready." Mirio wasn't sure what the other teen was planning, but there was no way he was faster than him, right? To be faster than that would be near the past Olympian standards.

"Set." Izuku shifted his shoulders, narrowing his eyes behind black lenses. "Go!"

With that, Izuku dashed forward with enough force to crack the starting blocks, immediately gaining a headstart and all but thundering down the track. He put as much strength in his legs that he could, enough to strain his muscles but not tear them off his bones. Just one more stride and Izuku was over the fifty-meter mark. "That's what I'm talking 'bout," he laughed, watching as Mirio came in nearly an entire four seconds behind him.

The sensor printed out the results. Izuku, 6.35 seconds. Mirio, 9.70 seconds.

"What?!" Mirio threw his hands up, "how are you that… wait. You knew I couldn't beat you!" He couldn't believe he got duped by a fifteen-year-old.

"Yes, I did."

"Alright, that's no fair."

"Fine, let's go with," Izuku paused, looking over the gym equipment before his gaze landed on the perfect test. "Sandbag. If you can beat my swing, I'll actually talk to you."

Mirio crossed his arms, mumbling to himself while following Izuku. "Why do I feel like this is rigged?"

Izuku shrugged, hiding his grin in his shoulder. "Beats me."

Mirio shook his head, rolling his shoulders back and raising his fists, taking a few experimental jabs before slamming his fist into the bag hard enough to send it swinging back on its chain, nearly a meter. "Beat that!"

"..." Izuku said nothing, pulling off his hoodie and squaring up, catching the bag with one hand and steading it. He adjusted his stance, making sure he would have a clean follow through before he pulled back his fist and hit the bag so hard one of the seams burst, sending sand and bits of leather through the gym.

 _Holy hell._ Mirio stared in awe as the shreds of the bag came fluttering down, the mound of sand spreading until the bag was empty.

Izuku grinned, adjusting his sunglasses. "So, looks like I'm still not talking to you."

"Alright, you can't be good at everything!"

"Why not?"

Throwing his hands in the air, Mirio exclaimed, "because it's impossible!"

Crossing his arms, Izuku responded cockily, "alright, then. Give me a challenge, and I'll do it, and I'll do it better than you."

"You're on!"

* * *

"I leave the room for five minutes, and you destroy the place!" Toshinori took in the wreckage that had once been the gym, the destroyed sandbag, the cracked starting blocks on the track, the actual crater in the track, the missing paneling on the walls and the flickering lights. It was as if a tornado had torn through the room, but it was no tornado. It was a useless teenage showdown that had ended in a wrestling match that had no holds barred. "Do I want to know what happened in here?"

"All you need to know is that I am not sorry." Izuku stood and shook the sand from his hair, peeling a piece of leather from the sandbag away from his face.

Mirio stayed where he had been pinned less than a moment ago brushing sand from his face. "This isn't fair!"

"You're just jealous," Izuku retorted, brushing down his clothes.

"I am though," Mirio muttered as he climbed back to his feet and struggled with the sand that covered him before he gave up and used his quirk for less than a full second, the sand and debris falling straight through him.

Toshinori took a deep breath that did nothing to calm him. "I don't want to know what happened. I don't want to know what happened," he repeated the words like a mantra, keeping himself from freaking out through sheer force of will.

Izuku shook his head, green curls bouncing around his face. "You really don't want to know.."

"I don't think I know what's going on either, sir." Mirio at least had the decency to look apologetic, while Izuku just smirked.

"So, Mirio," Izuku nodded in approval of the older teen. "Same time in two days, yeah?"

"You bet!" Mirio raised a fist, shaking it in a mock threat. "I'll beat you in something next time."

"You better."

"At least you two are getting along." Toshinori hoped he hadn't made a horrible mistake in this, but he had a feeling that he had. This was going to turn into absolute nonsense, wasn't it? Why did he do this to himself?

"Oh, is that what time it is?" Mirio looked down at his watch, the wall clock having been a casualty in the middle of his and Izuku's competition. "I've got to go, but I'll be back tomorrow for that one on one session, All Might!" Mirio collected his jacket and hurried out the door to the elevator down the hall.

Carefully stepping through the disaster, Toshinori stood beside Izuku, waiting for a moment before letting himself power-down. "So, Midoriya."

"Hmm?"

"What do you think of him?"

"I think," Izuku rubbed at his scarred knuckles, watching Mirio's retreating form through the floor. "I think that is the best possible person to get your quirk." He tapped his temple, "after all, I had an insider view and let me tell you, everything Sir Nighteye thought about him barely scratches the surface."

"Oh, really?"

"Really," Izuku nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "Someone with a personality like that is one in a billion. So, of course, there's still seven million just like them, but that's not the point."

"You're saying I should take him on as my successor?" Toshinori hadn't expected Izuku to accept the other reenager so quickly, he had expected more pushback than the ignoring him that Izuku had done in the beginning. Then again, he hadn't expected the two of them to destroy the gym either, but small victories.

"Yeah," Izuku drummed his fingers on his bicep, holding back a laugh as he looked over the damage the two of them had done. "He's good, that's the only word for it. Little gullible, but that's no big deal."

"You tricked him into doing something, didn't you," Toshinori wasn't even asking, he just knew that Izuku had done something like that.

"Whoa," Izuku waved his hands around in an attempt to fend off the accusations. "You can't prove anything!"

"That's because you put electrical tape over all of the security cameras in here!"

"Yup." Izuku stooped down and picked up his hoodie from the floor, shaking it out and pulling it back on. "Well, I've got to get back, mom should be home in about an hour, and I want to be there when she gets back." Izuku headed to the vent he had come in from, laughing internally at the lack of protest towards his choice of exit.

 _At least it's not the window this time._

From in the vent, Izuku called out, "there's always next time," getting a loud groan in return.

With a grin on his face, Izuku headed home. His letter should be there tomorrow, and he wanted to get more than just three hours of sleep for once.

* * *

"Izuku?" Inko sounded worried, and she had a decent reason to be. After all, he son was gazing into the eyes of the fish he had eaten for dinner, and he had either achieved Nirvana, or he was having a crisis.

"Hmm?" Behind his lenses, Izuku continued to stare blankly ahead. "Yeah?"

"Stop staring at the fish."

"Oh!" Izuku blinked slowly, not changing the direction of his gaze.

"You're still doing it, dear."

"Right." Izuku dropped the fish skeleton back to his plate, pushing his hands against his closed eyes and pressing the heel of his palm in until he saw spots. "Right." He paused, turning to his mother with a worried look that was hidden behind his hands. "What if I don't get in? What if they know I'm not normal? What if-

Inko snapped her fingers, grabbing her son's attention. "Enough what-ifs, Izuku. You and I both know that you made it. After all, what kind of hero school would turn away someone who tried to save people."

"Not a very good one."

"Exactly." Inko nodded and stood from the table, using her quirk to collect the dishes. "Now, go sit on the couch and try to relax."

Izuku nodded, pushing out his chair and heading to the living room. However, instead of relaxing, he immediately began to pace across the floor, chewing at his lip as he walked.

"Izuku! It's here! The letter is here!"

Izuku froze, one foot still raised before he took the letter in shaking hands. Slowly, he sat on the couch, sliding one of his fingers under the flap of the envelope. "Here goes." He closed his eyes and turned his head away from the envelope as he opened it, not daring to look within.

With a clatter, a small mechanical device, a holographic projector, fell onto the table top. "Huh?"

" _I am here! As a projection!"_

"Is that All Might!?" Inko sat beside Izuku on the couch, watching the projection. _He looks good._

Izuku covered his ears, even though that would do nothing against his mother's thoughts. "Mom, gross."

Inko shook her head, "I'm not sorry."

"Ew."

" _It's been hard keeping your results from you, there's been much to review!"_ The projection bowed, at least Izuku assumed it did, the light wasn't exactly something he was able to see easily. " _As you know, I'm in town for one reason only, to teach at U.A."_ There was a pause, and somewhere in the projection, Izuku thought he saw movement. " _What's that? Hurry up and get to the point? Right, right. I'll tell him later then."_

" _Even if you have a perfect score on the written exam, only having fifteen points in the practical isn't enough to pass."_

Izuku's heart sank, and his stomach burned with nerves, he knew there was more coming, but he didn't know if it would be good or bad news at this point.

" _But that's not all! Your attention please,"_ there was a shift in the arrangement of light, but all Izuku saw was a washed out grey blob. The next voice wasn't the loud boom of All Might, but the soft voice of the girl who had kept him from falling on his face at the front gate.

" _Excuse me, um, that boy, the one with the hat and the freckles? Sort of average looking?"_ Izuku chuckled, closing his eyes as he listened. " _Can you give him some of the points I earned? He, he said he needed more points! And he gave up his points to save me!"_ Izuku rubbed at his dry eyes, overcome with emotion as he realized what this meant. " _Please, he saved my life!"_

The voice was once again that of All Might, the hero explaining what Izuku already knew. " _You see, for this exam, we weren't just looking for villain based points!"_ Izuku shot to his feet, struggling to keep his breathing steady as he heart pounded wildly in his chest. " _A hero course that doesn't take those who do the right thing? That's no hero course at all!"_ Inko grabbed Izuku's hand, squeezing it tightly.

" _Think this is all for fame and glory? Think what you want, but in this job you risk your life and prove your worth!"_ There was a long pause, and Izuku held his breath, sure he would explode with the tension. " _Rescue points were also a factor here! Another way for U.A. to test you! Sixty rescue points for Midoriya Izuku!"_

" _With your fifteen villain points and sixty rescue points, you're at seventy-five. You're in kid. Come on, Midoriya Izuku, this is your Hero Academia."_

Izuku froze, falling back to the couch bonelessly while his mother pulled him close and wrapped him up in a fierce hug. He couldn't focus on her words, but he returned the embrace, his shoulders shaking with silent dry sobs, a giddy grin on his face.

He was going to U.A., and he was going to get to follow his dream.

He just hoped he wouldn't stand out too much.


	7. Chapter 7

In the bathroom, Izuku stared uselessly at the mirror, unable to see his reflection as he attempted to tie his tie correctly, giving up after his fifth attempt left him with a tangled mess of artificial silk. "Ugh," he yanked off the tie, not even knowing the color before he dropped it onto the bathroom counter. Bracing himself against the mirror, he tapped his forehead against the cold glass, breath fogging the surface. "Get it together, Izuku. Stop freaking out, why can't you just be normal for once?"

Running his fingers through wild green curls, he smiled shakily. It's not like he could see if he was making it better or worse. "Good enough," he shrugged, picked up his sunglasses and was out the door in a heartbeat.

"Wait, Izuku!"

"Nhhh!" Izuku froze in the middle of the doorway, hands on the straps of his backpack and his jaw clenched tight. "What, mom?" They still weren't on good terms, it was more like a casual friendship than a mother-son bond, but at least they ate breakfast together now.

"You forgot your eye drops!" Inko smiled softly, holding up a small bottle. _I swear, that boy would lose his head if it weren't on his shoulders._

"Oh." Izuku took the bottle and tucked it into the pocket of his uniform jacket, as he muttered a quick thanks. "See you later, mom." And he was off once again, heading to the train station and his new school.

The station is nearly stuffed to bursting this time in the day. Salarymen heading to their jobs, night workers coming home from their shifts, and so many students. Quickly, Izuku found himself a place to stand, leaning against the back corner of the train car and checking his exit points.

"Hey!"

"Hi!"

"Hey!"

"Hello?"

"Hey!"

"Hey, mister!"

Izuku blinked slowly as he processed that last word. Had they just called him _Mister?_ How old did they think he was?! Izuku turned his focus to the gaggle of elementary school children staring at him with wide eyes. "...what?"

"Are you in high school? What school? Do you wanna be a hero? Why are you wearing sunglasses? What's your quirk? Is it strong? Is that why you have the sunglasses? Why is your hair green? Does it help with your quirk? Hey!"

Izuku's eye twitched as he barely weathered through the storm of questions. "I'm going to U.A," he said flatly, his statement sending a wave of awe through the group of children.

"So you _do_ want to be a hero!" A young girl with a frog-like appearance looked up at him with wide eyes. "My sister is going to U.A. too!"

"Really? That's exciting, isn't it?" Izuku didn't know why all children seemed to like him; it was like a curse. All adults, all animals, even the forces of nature seemed to find him unsettling and unnatural, but it never seemed to affect kids. Next time he took this train he was riding in the undercarriage, just cling to the axel and try not to fall off or derail the train car.

He managed to make awkward conversation with the elementary schoolers until they reached their stop. The moment they were off, he slumped against the corner behind him, breathing a sigh of relief. Kids might like him, but he had no idea how to deal with them.

The last few stations flew by in a blur, and before he was ready, Izuku was once more outside the gates of U.A. He clutched the straps of his backpack tightly, making up his mind on how he wanted to run this out. He didn't want to make too much of an impact, but he also couldn't get caught on camera. Adjusting his sunglasses, he made a decision, veering away from the gate and towards the trees lining the buildings across the street from the walls.

Squatting down, he put enough power behind his jump he worried he might finally destroy his ratty red shoes. Once in the tree, he made a few more small jumps to reach the rooftop, immediately heading to the far side and breaking into a sprint, leaping at half power once he reached the edge.

It was a good thing most people don't think to look up when going about their daily lives, or his plan wouldn't have worked so well.

Landing with an impact enough to permanently compress the soil and kill the grass to the root, Izuku managed to stick the landing, knees bent and wobbling slightly. Nervously fiddling with his sleeves, he went around the west side of the building, looking for a drainpipe or a gutter, or even a smooth column he could grab onto. Didn't matter what it was, as long as he could climb it.

Ah, right there, an easily reachable window ledge. And isn't that convenient? All of the windows are within reach of the other, almost too easy to climb.

Izuku rolled his shoulders back, checking for any familiar thoughts before he began his ascent. He made his way to the second floor, pulling himself into the closest window.

"Um, hello?" Present Mic wasn't sure whether to hide behind the desk or to face this intruder who had just pulled himself into the window like a spider on cocaine. _Wait, is that the kid who ripped his own muscles apart to take on the zero-pointer? Damn, he's a lot shorter than I expected._

Izuku flapped one of his hands in the voice heroes general direction, thinking about his plan of action. "Shh." There were definitely security cameras in the halls, but the classroom was just next door, could he risk it? Was he willing to be recorded appearing out of a classroom he had never been seen entering?

Of course not. And that only left him with one option.

"Wait, what's happening, what are you doing?"

Ignoring Present Mic's protests, Izuku grabbed the closest desk and climbed onto it, reaching for the ceiling panel and falling short. He shrugged and stacked another desk on top of the other, climbing onto the second one and pushing up the panel in the ceiling and pulling himself into it, closing it behind him.

"Hey! Get out of there!" Yamada attempted to follow the student into the ceiling but was deterred by a spider dropping out of the darkness. He backed away quickly, watching as the ceiling was closed back up from the inside. "Screw this; you can go on ahead then!" _This kid is crazy!_

Holding back his laughter, Izuku crawled towards the location he had pulled from the mind of the unsuspecting and terrified Present Mic, and he followed the cloud of excitement that seemed to wait ahead of him. He only had two minutes before class began, he had to pick up the pace, nothing stands out more than being late. It doesn't matter _how_ you get in, as long as you're on time.

 _Where is that freak, I know he got in, he better not have gotten lost._

Izuku followed the stream of Bakugou's angry thoughts, easily navigating his way through the wiring and insulation filling the space around him. Testing the stability of his chosen exit point, Izuku braced himself and shifted onto his knees, sliding open the panel in the ceiling and looking down at his new classroom.

"Please remove your feet from the desk!" Iida chopped the air, never having dealt with something like this before. _The disrespect!_

"Bite me!" Bakugou barked back at the other, leaning his chair back onto its hind legs to get his point across on how much he didn't care. _Hell does he think he is. Fucking extra._

Suddenly the room went quiet, everyone turning their focus to the open door of the class and the sleeping bag clad form of the exhausted hero who had been proctoring the written exam. "It took you over eight seconds to quiet down." Somehow he stood without the aid of his hands, still zipped within the confines of the fabric. "Disappointing. Time is a precious resource."

 _Is that? That's our teacher?!_

 _Hey, it's the tired dude._

 _He doesn't look familiar, is he a hero?_

"I am your homeroom teacher, Shouta Aizawa, welcome to the heroics course." He dropped the sleeping bag and stepped from the copious amounts of insulating fabric. From within the bag, he pulled out a track uniform, and Izuku assumed the colors were dark blues and reds, or perhaps black and green. He didn't really have a reference point.

"Excuse me, we appear to be missing a student!"

Izuku took that as his cue, tipping forward through the open panel, dropping out of the ceiling and landing in a crouch beside an empty desk. He straightened up, brushing dust and bits of wood from his uniform before quietly muttering, "don't worry, I'm here."

"AAAAAHH!"

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Merde!"

"What is that?!"

"Oh, hey Midoriya." Shinsou did his best to give a casual nod, but it was ruined with the intensity that he stared, obviously impressed with the dramatic entrance the other had made. _Who does that! How did he even get in there?!_

Bakugou sneered up at Izuku, pretending he wasn't glad he had made it in time. _Finally someone worth my time._ "You made it freak, was starting to worry you wimped out."

Aizawa cleared his throat, "Midoriya Izuku, glad you decided to join us today." _So, that's the kid that scored second on the entrance exam. How interesting. He looks about ready to jump out of his skin. Explains the mess of a written test he turned in._ "As you heard, change into gym clothes, then head out to the grounds."

Almost immediately, Izuku instinctively snapped to attention, chin up, shoulders back and heels together. "Of course, sir." As soon as the words left his mouth, Izuku shook his head, trying to pull himself back out of his memories. Just because they were an authority figure didn't mean he had to talk to them the way _they_ had demanded him do. Something about Aizawa unsettled him, the orderly and rational nature of his thoughts.

Just like a doctor.

Bakugou stood and kicked at Izuku's ratty red shoes, pulling his attention onto him. "Where's your tie, loser?"

"W-where's yours?" Izuku let a grin he let few people see onto his face, not missing the positive reaction in Bakugou's mind.

"Tch." Bakugou rolled his eyes; he wasn't about to say that the tie ruined the look he had going on. So instead he simply said, "your hair looks like shit." He checked him with his shoulder as he stepped by him, ignoring the protests of the other students as he pushed past them on his way to the door.

"Thanks," Izuku shook his head, turning to leave the classroom and running face first into Iida Tenya's chest. "Shit, sorry Iida." He quickly adjusted his sunglasses from where they had slid down his face, making sure nobody could catch a glimpse of the flat black beneath.

 _How does he know my name? No matter,_ Iida brushed off his wandering thoughts, turning to Izuku with determination in the forefront of his mind. "Midoriya, you… you perceived the true nature of that exam, while I did not. I judged you harshly and jumped to conclusions when I should not have! Please, accept my sincerest apology!" Iida bowed,

Izuku lifted his hands, trying to still their anxious twitching, and backed away slowly. "I, uh, okay?" He glanced at the door then back to the remaining students to see Shinsou barely holding in a laugh, and now he knew he would get no help in this situation.

Iida stilled the vigorous motions of his hands, adjusting his glasses from where they had begun to slide. "Although I must ask that you apologize to the staff of your destruction of property."

"It's not destroyed, the panel just needs to be pulled back over." Izuku ran a hand through his unruly hair and slung his backpack off and stowed it under the closest desk. "Destroying your exit point is poor strategy." With that, he turned back to the door, following the other students out towards the grounds, Shinsou right on his heels.

"Oh." A few long strides caught Iida up with Izuku and Shinsou, and Iida chopped the air with one hand as he brought himself to his second point. "Well then, I will have to ask that you don't disrespect the uniform of this prestigious academy with your lack of tie, those sunglasses, and those disgusting shoes."

"Hey, I happen to _like_ these disgusting shoes," Izuku grumbled, unbuttoning his jacket as he followed the others down the hall, ducking behind Shinsou as he passed the one camera in the hall.

"I like your shoes too, Midoriya," Shinsou added, a small smirk twisting his lip. "But I like your sunglasses better."

"Hey, loser, maybe you show him why it is you wear those stupid things," Bakugou called out from the front of the group, a malicious leer on his face. _You're better than him, do it._

"Maybe you do," Shinsou nodded, his smirk growing in anticipation. _Do it, knock him off his high horse._

"Maybe I don't." Izuku shook his head, uncertain if making his future classmate sick on the first day would be the best idea. He followed the rest of the boys into the locker room, ignoring the thoughts that focussed on what he might be planning to do.

 _Do it freak, don't let him talk to you like that. Stand up for yourself!_

 _Come on, Midoriya, do it for the rest of us with weird quirks._

"You fight dirty, Shinsou," Izuku muttered as he tossed his jacket into the closest locker, turning back to Iida with a bland expression, he carefully hid his thoughts. "Alright, what would it take to convince you that I need these?" He tapped on the frame of the glasses, the dark plastic somehow making his unnatural prescence even stronger.

Iida frowned, not sure where this line of inquiry was going. "Nothing, there are no circumstances that would require you to wear sunglasses with your uniform."

Izuku rolled his eyes behind the black lenses; he was starting to think he might enjoy what he was about to do. He really did like proving people wrong. "Well, are you sure about that?"

"Positive."

Goaded on by the thoughts of Shinsou and Bakugou, their ideas almost worrying in their similarity, Izuku rested his fingers on the frames of the glasses, slowly lowering them to expose the flat black void he hid away from the rest of the world.

"Hrmphk!" Iida quickly succumbed to the effects of the radiation, and he clamped a hand over his mouth before rushing to the closest trash can and emptying the contents of his stomach into it.

Izuku blinked, feeling slightly sick from the awful sound. He pushed a hand against his stomach to try and quell its churning before muttering, "I guess you were wrong then."

"Hah!" Shinsou pointed, tired eyes bright with laughter. _That's what you_ _ **get!**_

Bakugou nodded in approval, lacing up his shoes and heading out of the locker room, clapping Izuku on the shoulder as he passed him. "Nice one, you damn nerd."

Izuku pushed his sunglasses back up and finished changing into his gym uniform, tugging at the sleeves of the grey, at least it _looked_ grey to him, athletic wear he wore under it, the thin fabric concealing the worst of his scars from his wrists up to his jawline. His hands were free, the scars on display in a way Izuku wished they weren't, but he couldn't exactly wear gloves all the time. With that on his mind, he left the locker room, tugging on the sleeves of the shirt, wishing he was invisible.

"The plain looking boy!" The nice girl, Izuku was really going to need to find out her name, waved at him enthusiastically, gesturing for him to stand by her as the other students arrived. "You got in; I'm so glad. It was so cool how you took out that robot! Like a hamster!"

Izuku flushed dangerously, his cheeks burning. "A hamster?"

She nodded energetically, miming Izuku's fight with the zero-pointer. "Yeah, in the tubes!"

"Okay…" Izuku cast his gaze to the dirt, rubbing the scars on his knuckles in a futile effort to calm himself. He hoped 'hamster' wasn't going to become a common comparison. To distract himself, he took a quick headcount, frowning when the number wasn't what he had been expecting. There were supposed to be twenty, why were there twenty-one?

Interrupting Izuku's thoughts, Aizawa walked to the front of the group, shoulders slumped and posture deceptively lazy. "Everyone gather round, today we'll be conducting a quirk assessment test."

The nice girl raised her hand, asking her question almost immedietly. "Wait, what about the entrance ceremony and guidance sessions?"

Aizawa brushed her question off with no hesitation, expression hidden behind dark hair and the loops of his scarf. "No time to waste on frivolities if you wish to become heroes."

 _What?_

 _No way, he's not serious, is he?_

 _So this is how they teach at U.A. No nonsense._

"U.A. is known for the freedom of its educational system, that freedom includes the teachers as well."

 _I don't like the sound of this._

 _What does that mean?_

 _Is he being serious right now?_

"Softball pitch, standing long jump, fifty-meter dash, grip strength, sustained side jumps, seated toe touch, I'm sure you know the rest. Standard no-quirk assessments." Aizawa turned to Bakugou, his expression not giving away his next question. "Bakugou, how far could you throw in middle school?"

"Sixty-seven meters."

Aizawa tossed a softball into Bakugou's hands, "try using your quirk this time, doesn't matter what you do, just stay in the circle." With a curious tone to his thoughts, but none in his voice, he added, "don't hold back."

"Alright," Bakugou nodded, stretching lightly as he planned his throw. _I'll add a bit of a blastwave behind it,_ Bakugou rolled the ball in his hands, coating it with a thin sheen of nitroglycerin, merely molecules thick. He pulled back his arm, putting as much force into it as he dared, a loud shout of "Die" accompanying the throw. A massive explosion burst from his palm, carrying the ball into the air on a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke and smaller blasts skittered across the ball itself, keeping it in the air until they fizzled out and it began its descent.

 _Die?_

 _Is he for real?_

 _Isn't that a bit much?_

 _Die?!_

 _Damn, that's intense._

With a soft thud and an electronic beep, the ball landed, bouncing then rolling to a stop.

"It's important for us to know our limitations," Aizawa turned the screen showing Bakugou's score towards the group, a 705.2 m displayed in bold red. "That's the first step in finding out what sort of heroes you're going to be."

"Whoa, this is awesome!"

"Seven hundred and five meters? Seriously?"

"So we can use our quirks for real? Man the hero course is great!"

"This is going to be fun!"

"Awesome? Fun?" Aizawa narrowed his eyes dangerously, prompting most of the group to take a step back and away from potential danger.

 _Oh no, I don't like that look. How is my quirk supposed to help me with this?_

"You want to become heroes after learning here for three years, and you hope it will be fun and games?"

 _Oh, I_ _ **really**_ _don't like that look._

"Right, the one with the lowest score will be judged to be hopeless, and will be immediately expelled."

 _He's bluffing; he wouldn't expel someone on their first day._ Izuku glanced to the girl with the ponytail who had thought that, shaking his head slowly. Aizawa wasn't bluffing; he was serious about this.

"What?"

"No way!"

Aizawa wore a rabid grin, pushing his hair back from his eyes as he watched the spirits of the potential students fall. "Your fates are in your own hands, so welcome, to the hero course at U.A. high!"

 _Oh no, oh no, oh no-_

Izuku patted Shinsou's shoulder, breaking off his mental mantra. He had a plan; he wasn't going to let his new friend be expelled on the first day.

While Aizawa explained the concept of 'Plus Ultra,' Izuku pulled Shinsou to the side. "Are you alright?"

Shinsou shook his head, "I'm… shit, it was stupid to think I could be a hero." _Nobody wants a hero with a quirk like mine._

Izuku grabbed Shinsou by the shoulder, shaking him slightly. "Don't give up yet; I have a plan." All Shinsou had to do was be a better candidate than someone else, right?

"I've seen your plans, and I don't think there's a gatling gun around here," Shinsou replied immediately.

"That, that hadn't been a plan." Izuku's cheeks flushed, still embarrassed about how he had gotten his first twelve points. He had definitely stood out. He shook his head, green curls bouncing over his sunglasses. "But see, there are twenty-one students, there was a tied score, so someone's getting cut no matter what. And if I play my cards right," Izuku pointed to the shortest students, the one with some sort of disgusting balls on his head and the most atrocious thoughts Izuku had ever seen. "That one will be getting cut loose."

"You're going to _try_ to get them expelled?" Shinsou's words were laced with disbelief, but his thoughts only held thanks.

"Yeah, Aizawa sensei is going to expel someone no matter what. And how badly do you think someone like _that,"_ he pointed again, this time the subject of discussion was openly ogling the… assets of the girls around him. "How badly would that sort of behaviour reflect on the school?"

Shinsou blinked, a small crooked grin on his face. "You're going to cause a scene, aren't you?" He had never had someone willing to go that far to help him before.

"I hate attention, but to help you out," Izuku nodded and gave Shinsou's shoulder a quick squeeze. "I'll deal with it."

Causing a scene was his backup plan, after all, first was seeding distrust and spreading propaganda. Then came recruitment of troops and solidifying trade lines. Next came action as a unified force, leading an army to victory.

And if that army was only himself and Shinsou, possibly Bakugou, and maybe some of the girls, well that should be more than enough.

As the first students began to prepare themselves for the fifty-meter dash, Izuku sidled over until he stood next to Aizawa. He might not like what he was about to do, but if it worked, it would be better for everyone. Mostly he didn't like how he was about to _act._

How _they_ had wanted him to.

Izuku drew upon his experiences, bowing his head slightly, keeping his voice timid, and most importantly, being almost overly polite. Apologize for taking their time, manipulate human kindness. "Excuse me, sir? I have some concerns about the behavior of one of the students?" He made sure to keep his posture subdued, controlling how people perceive you always helps.

 _Concerns? Already? I should have expected this from him, Nedzu doesn't take interest in just any regular student._ Aizawa frowned, glancing at the boy who had impressed even him with his behavior during the exam. The boy, while twitchy and nervous, was intuitive and it was almost as if he had personal insight into everything around him. "What are your concerns, Midoriya."

Izuku made sure to project an air of discomfort and hesitance, his hand and fingers twitching as he discreetly pointed towards the problem. "Well, I know this isn't something that U.A. seems to care about, but that boy was trying to look up girls skirts before the entrance exam, and now he won't won't stop staring at their, um..." Izuku paused, plucking at the grey sleeves of his undershirt, listening as Aizawa processed exactly what he meant. "It's making everyone uncomfortable, sir. Sorry for bothering you with this, I just didn't know what else to do."

Izuku stepped back to the rest of the students, ignoring their murmured questions, instead focusing on his goal. He had planted the first seed of doubt, and now he had less than ten minutes to work his plan; he really couldn't afford to fail this.

Systematically seed distrust and spread propaganda. Next were the other students. Spread the same information, and it would circle back to where it had first been heard, adding credibility. Capture the subject in the middle of a trap of their own making.

Izuku schooled his features, keeping a rabid grin from his face, only showing the twitchy and anxious mess that he usually was. Behind him, Shinsou meandered towards Bakugou, leaning in to tell him Izuku's plan. Bakugou didn't even care to hide his snarl, glaring at Mineta with violent intent.

"Oi, freak," he called out, drawing attention to himself that he glared back into submission.

"What?"

Bakugou stalked up to Izuku, his voice low as he glared around them, daring anyone to question his actions. "You read his mind, huh? He as much a bastard as you told creep?"

"Cree- oh, you mean Shinsou?" Izuku nodded, barely muttering his reply. "But yeah, he's… bad. Really fucking bad."

With a nod, Bakugou turned on his heel, all but stomping back to the group. "Hmph, alright, we'll work on this between tests," he said quietly, more for himself than for Izuku. He knew the other could just read his mind if he really wanted to know that he was saying.

Izuku kept an eye on the other students, watching as they each finished the fifty-meter dash. Some with scores he couldn't hope to beat.

But some of the others, such as the nice girl, the boy with some sort of laser? And then there was the one with the bird head who's quirk he couldn't quite figure out; he could beat them along with the rest of the class.

"Midoriya and Bakugou, you're up."

Izuku and Bakugou all but flat out ignored the other's presence on the starting line, Bakugou flexing his fingers and warming his palms while Izuku dropped and got his feet into the starting blocks. He glared at the sensorbot that would be recording his score, not trusting it for a second.

The moment to countdown ended, Bakugou's quirk crackled to life, propelling him forward on a wave of explosions. "Explosive Speed!"

Izuku set off after Bakugou, pushing off with enough force to crack the starting blocks and embed them into the track. Ducking the rapid-fire explosions in his face, he pushed himself against the blowback until he could swear his bones were rattling. He knew he couldn't beat Bakugou; he couldn't fly, after all. He crossed the line barely more than a second after the other, and he waved the smoke from the explosions out of his face, not even trying to hear his time.

He knew what it was already, the same time he had been stuck on for the past two months. His bones were too dense to allow him to improve by anything more than milliseconds, and the stronger he got in the future, the slower he would be.

The grip strength assessment was next, and he already knew what was going to happen. With a small sigh, Izuku picked up the device and squeezed with more force than necessary, flinching as the sound of squealing metal echoed through the grounds as his hand continued to close and the metal twisted around his fingers. "Shit," he muttered, all eyes upon him as he attempted to unlock his joints, the artificial tendons stiff and refusing to release. "Oops," he finally managed to remove his hand from the device, shaking his head in disappointment at the destroyed sensors and glitching readout. Guess he would never know his score.

"Midoriya, what did you _do?"_ Shinsou looked at the mangled mess of a machine, the metal twisted around Izuku's bloody fingers. His own score was only forty-two kilograms, what the hell was Izuku's?!

"Fucking hell, freak," Bakugou shook his head, looking at his own score in dissatisfaction. How was he supposed to compare to _that?_ He frowned, crossing his arms and turning away, sneering at anyone who dared wonder why he was upset. While the rest of the class continued the testing, he stomped over towards the teacher, a complaint already ready to fly.

"Oi, sensei." He didn't wait for an answer before he continued. With a sneer, he jerked his thumb at the bastard who was currently making innuendo about grip strength and something else they could grip. "Do something about that pervert before I do."

Aizawa raised his eyebrows, this was the second complaint he had gotten about the same candidate, and both were from the top two students in the exam. Something was going on here. If he got one more complaint, he was going to have to take action. He watched as Bakugou stalked back towards the rest of the group, glaring at Midoriya in a way that implied a shared history.

The rest of the exam was much of the same, above average results with most of the students and Midoriya somehow managing to break more things. Aizawa had never seen someone manage to punch themselves in the face in the middle of a sustained side jump, but now he could say that he had. After fifteen, the lowest score of them all, Midoriya had kicked himself in the calf and gone down in a pile of limbs, nearly breaking his nose in the process.

"Excuse me, sensei?"

Aizawa looked down to see Uraraka Ochako; the girl had a nearly sick look on her face, and Aizawa immediately knew what was going to be said. This was the last straw; he wasn't going to keep Mineta around if it would end up harboring an unsafe environment in the classroom. He had planned on waiting until the scores were compiled to expel the lowest scoring student, but now that three out of the top four students had already come forward with complaints, there was no other option at this point.

He had planned on choosing between Shinsou and Mineta, the two having tied in their final score in both the practical and written exams. But this had taken his choice and turned it into a necessity.

"This is about Mineta, isn't it," he asked, watching as Uraraka nodded quickly, her expression unchanged. "Don't worry; I'll take care of it."

Uraraka quickly said a quiet thanks, avoiding the gazes of everyone as she hid behind Midoriya and Shinsou. Too busy setting up the equipment for the softball pitch, Aizawa almost missed the feeling of being watched. He turned discretely to see Midoriya whispering to some of the students, wiping the blood off his face and onto the green sleeves of his undershirt, a sly and knowing grin on his face that was quickly wiped away along with the last of the blood.

 _So that's how it is, isn't it, Midoriya._ Aizawa had to admit that he hadn't expected this from the anxious and jumpy mess of a boy, but if he could put this sort of plan together in less than ten minutes what else was he capable of? The hero shook his head, hiding his grin in the loops of his capture tool. This boy was going to go far; he just seemed to draw people towards him with almost no effort.

Even if he made Aizawa's skin crawl every time he gazed at him from behind those black lenses.

The long jump was uneventful, almost half of the students clearing the sandbox while the rest fell short. As the scores were added from that test, Aizawa kept his eye on Midoriya, watching as he awkwardly attempted to interact with his future classmates. He couldn't quite pin down the kid's quirk, but he could tell that he was holding back. He would have to do something about that.

But there were still a few more tests to go, and Aizawa began the scoring for the softball pitch, feigning disinterest at each attempt.

Uraraka stood at the pitch, activating her quirk on the ball before she threw it, watching it defy gravity and float off to the stratosphere. Without even that much force behind it, without the shackles of gravity, it flew like a missile, curving east by minuscule amounts.

Aizawa tapped at the glitching screen of his phone, trying to make sense of what it said. He shook the phone, hoping it would clear up the scattering pixels before they finally settled on a random assortment of letters and numbers. "What the," he grumbled, smacking the phone against his palm until it finally settled and made sense.

1 AU. One Astronomical Unit. The distance between the earth and the sun. Aizawa blinked slowly, raising and showing the still glitching screen to the group. "Congratulations, you've managed to be the first human to actually launch something into the sun."

"Wow, can you launch me next," Shinsou asked, his own score feeling worthless in comparison. Only thirty-four meters, it was like nothing at all.

Izuku nodded, knowing his throw wasn't going to be anything close to that. "After him, I'm up. High five me, then casually toss me right into the sun."

 _Wow kids, lighten up a bit._

Iida's thoughts closely mirrored those of Aizawa and he chopped the air sternly, frowning at Izuku and Shinsou. "Don't joke about death so casually!"

"Who said anything about dying, I just want to be thrown into the sun. I hear it's a real hotspot," Izuku snarked, raising a chorus of giggles behind him.

"Midoriya… _no."_ Shinsou shook his head in disappointment, not believing that he was putting his faith and fate in someone who would willingly make a joke like that.

Aizawa hid his smirk in the loops of his capture tool, waving the green haired boy forward. "Midoriya, you're next."

On shaking legs, Izuku stepped up to the pitch, testing the weight of the ball in his bloody hand. He closed his eyes, facing the sun, taking a slow breath as he pulled back his arm and wound up for the pitch.

 _Erase his quirk before he can release. Force him to take this seriously._

Izuku narrowed his eyes, shaking his head and shaking the tension from his shoulders. He didn't care if he was holding everyone up, a quick glance through Aizawa's, _Eraserhead's,_ mind told him he had already gotten what he had wanted from his efforts. With a quiet but determined breath, he wound back up before throwing the ball with as much force as he could, his artificial tendons and ligaments flexing dangerously under his skin, muscle tearing and shredding all along the lines of tension.

As the ball flew, Izuku pulled his injured arm against his chest with a heavy gasp of pain, barely looking over the damage before he felt sick. It was worse than he could feel, the damage to his nerves numbing the pain, but that did nothing to change the fact that he had nearly stripped his muscles from the bone.

 _I couldn't erase his quirk? I thought it was an emitter. Must be mutation._ Aizawa looked down at the score, it was lower than it could be, but it was much higher than he had expected of him. "Midoriya, two hundred and thirty meters. Thanks for taking this seriously." _Interesting, he's still holding himself back, but now I see why. At full strength he's a glass cannon._

Izuku just nodded, continuing to cradle his arm, stumbling back to the group and ignoring the concerned voices of his future classmates while he hissed in pain. There were still three more tests to go, he had to push through the pain.

The next three test passes in a dull grey haze, the sort of haze he was beginning to recognize as the warnings of another episode, but the exam ended before he could fall into it. And it also ended with him not hurting himself worse than he already was, so that was a plus? Somehow he had managed them with only one working arm, and Izuku just wasn't going to question it, even if he had only laid on the ground and not even participated in the seated toe touch. But because of that, the thoughts of those around him seemed to all be assuming he didn't feel pain.

With a few taps on the screen of his phone, Aizawa brought up the scores, a bright hologram that Izuku struggled to read it for a few seconds before giving up. He raised his uninjured arm, "excuse me, sir?"

Aizawa barely managed to hide the twitch of his eye. He was beginning to loathe being called 'sir.' "What is it now, Midoriya?" _This boy is going to be a problem, isn't he?_

"Do you have a way for those with visual impairments to read this?"

"Hold on, freak." Bakugou turned towards Izuku with an incredulous expression. "You can't read?" _That's not possible; he's too good for that._

Izuku flushed under the unintentional praise, mumbling his answer. "I can read, I just can't make sense of projections or holograms." He paused, thinking about his adventures with his tie in the morning. "Or mirrors." He frowned, "or most screens." Really, anything that wasn't three dimensional.

"You got seventh place," Shinsou interrupted, stopping Izuku from listing everything he had trouble seeing.

"Oh, alright." Izuku didn't try to hide his grin, and he stood and swayed in place, nearly ready to collapse from the combined forces of his pain and exhaustion. His injuries in the entrance exam had been worse, and he had pushed through them, but he didn't have adrenaline on his side this time.

But before he could do either, Aizawa handed him a hall pass, "Midoriya, go to the nurse's office and have Recovery Girl fix you up." He pointed towards the main building and pushed Izuku forwards before turning to face the rest of the class. "Meet back at the classroom when you're done, and as for you, Mineta. Pack your bag, keep the uniform and go home. Maybe you can make an appeal for general education."

 _Wait, he was serious?_

 _I didn't think he would_ _ **really**_ _go through with it!_

 _Hah, the freaks' plan worked!_

 _Good plan, Midoriya. I owe you big time._

* * *

The classroom is quiet, almost somber as everyone realizes the lengths that their homeroom teacher was willing to go to to make a point. Inappropriate behavior will be punished. Slacking off will be punished. Nothing is a guarantee.

Shinsou leaned back in his seat, looking at the empty desk between himself and Bakugou. "So, how do you know Midoriya," he asked, pretending not to be interested in the answer.

"What's it to you, creep." Bakugou didn't even turn around; he just growled out a reply without caring who heard.

"Nothing. He's a," Shinsou paused, trying to find the right words. "He's an _interesting_ guy, isn't he?"

"Tch." Bakugou rolled his eyes and kicked his feet up onto the desk. "The freak might be a _freak,_ but he's better than the rest of you extras." He leaned back on the empty desk behind him, wondering when the freak would come back. He didn't miss him, no, not anything like that. He was worried that the weirdo might have gotten lost or accidentally made everyone around him vomit until they died.

"Huh," was the only reply Shinsou could come back with. He didn't understand why Bakugou seemed to look down on everyone, including himself, but he looked up to Midoriya as if he was on par with the stars themselves. Shinsou shrugged before pushing those thoughts away and asking "Same middle school?"

"Every school," Bakugou replied, staring up at the ceiling, bored out of his skull.

"Damn." Shinsou couldn't imagine what it would be like to have the same people around year after year. Same people in every class. Same friends.

Because of his villains' quirk. No, because of how _others_ saw his quirk, he had transferred schools more times than he liked to admit. He really had to break himself from the habit of thinking his quirk was wrong.

Bakugou leaned back far enough on the empty desk to get a glimpse of the tips of Shinsou's gravity defying hair. He had a question for the creep that he had to know the answer to. "How did he pull you into his little weirdo club?"

Shinsou jolted back to attention, his thoughts scattering like clouds of smoke in rough wind. "Uh, he helped me out in the entrance exam. Kept me from failing."

"Hmp. Just like him." Bakugou rolled his eyes, glaring around the classroom at anyone who dared to look at him. He glanced at the clock, frowning once he realized the school day was almost over. The freak hadn't come back yet, and his hideous yellow backpack was still under the empty desk.

Just about the entire class had the same thought on their mind, they had seen what Midoriya was capable of. The insane strength, the quick mind.

There wasn't a single person who didn't want to learn more about the mysterious and paranoid boy. Soon enough they would learn what than they had wished to, but they would be left with even more questions.


	8. Chapter 8

Even though he was hissing in pain and bruised and bloody, Izuku walked away with his head held high knowing he had made a point. Not with his test score or placement, but with his actions. How he had subtly manipulated the others to get what he wanted.

He wasn't proud of his actions, but describing how he felt was difficult. Yes, he felt good about it, but he felt both pity and contempt for the one he had forced out. Joy that Shinsou would have a chance to be a hero, comfort in knowing that Bakugou would listen to his plans and follow through.

Emotions that weren't supposed to mix made it hard to sift through the more subtle feelings. Complicated feelings that Izuku wasn't exactly used to looking over bubbled up like a boiling pot of thick tar.

His mind on his emotions, it was too late for Izuku to stop as his strides sent him running into the muscled form of his mentor, jostling his injured arm. "Nyargh!" Izuku nearly jumped a foot into the air from the shock, heart beating wildly as he tried to calm himself.

Helping to steady Izuku after his near fall, Toshinori patted the shoulder of the boy he had come to regard as his own. "Midoriya, I didn't mean to frighten you!"

Izuku blinked up at All Might, eyebrows drew together in his confusion. "All Might? What are you doing hiding here?"

Toshinori awkwardly tugged at the collar of his shirt, "oh, I was just, nothing!" _Yep, nothing, wasn't spying at all._

Shaking his head, Izuku huffed out a laugh tinged with the pain in his torn muscles. "I don't even have to read your mind to know that you're lying to me." He swayed slightly on his feet, the edges of his vision beginning to blur.

"Well, you see, I just-

"Nope, gonna stop you right there, I don't care. Spy away, knowledge is power." Izuku put up his uninjured hand, gesturing to the useless arm that hung loosely at his side. With a one-shouldered shrug, he continued, "besides, I need to go see Recovery Girl."

"I'm proud of you, Midoriya," Toshinori began, unable to hold back. He had been impressed with the boy he had been training for the past ten months. Midoriya had come far; he couldn't wait to see how far the boy would go.

Izuku grinned, his cheeks burning dangerously. "Don't make this weird, I'm in too much pain and far too tired for this."

Toshinori just nodded, glancing back to where he had been spying earlier. "You should go on to Recovery Girl's office, looks like Aizawa is heading this way."

"Mmh," Izuku nodded, forcing himself to focus on not getting lost before he pushed on, holding his arm to his chest.

 _I'm proud of you, Midoriya. Just be more careful in the future._

Izuku shook his head; there was just no way to respond to that. He ducked around the corner and headed down the next hallway, staying out of the sight of cameras as he went.

Izuku pushed open the door to the nurse's office with his shoulder, his injured arm still drawn against his chest and held there tightly. One arm wrecked and nearly useless, the other fine but with a bloody hand. Not exactly off to a good start.

Looking around the unfamiliar room, Izuku's gaze landed on the diminutive form of the retired heroine, Recovery Girl. "Um," he spoke quietly, voice tinged with pain and nerves. "Excuse me?"

"Oh dear, already injured?" Shuuzenji Chiyo stood from her seat behind her desk, leaning on her cane as she made her way around the desk. She ran a calculating eye over Izuku's form, landing on the arm after glancing at the slight bruising on his face and the dark circles under his eyes that were barely hidden behind dark glasses. Shaking her head, Chiyo pulled out the chair in the front of her desk, waving Izuku fully inside. "It's only the first day, that boy is too hard on you students."

He staggered inside, the impact of his emotional crash weighing down on him like a ton of bricks. "Not Aizawa sensei's fault, I wanted to make a point."

"Well then, sit down and let me take a look." Once Izuku was seated, she gestured for him to take off his shirts and she took a closer look at his arm, gently feeling the injury to get a more complete understanding of its extent. "Hmm, almost completely off the bone. How did you manage that?"

Izuku didn't see the point in lying, after all, he would likely be here quite often with the way things were going. Relaxing his arm, he flinched as the torn muscle shifted in place. "My muscles aren't as durable as my tendons and ligaments are."

But they would be eventually, he just had to train.

"I see." Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow at the odd color of the boys' blood, but she had seen odder quirks in her life. Strange colored blood was nothing out of the ordinary. Besides, the first time she had healed him, she had seen his bones beneath the splits in his skin, odd coloured blood was nothing compared to the metallic grey of his bones. "Interesting."

Izuku kept his gaze focused on the wall, feeling sick at the sight of his muscles lying slack and unresponsive under his skin. "Uh, your quirk, it uses the energy of the person your healing, right?"

Chiyo nodded, cleaning the blood from the boys' hands. "That's right."

"Well, I only get about…" Izuku hung his head, not liking having to explain this to a medical professional. After a calming breath, he sighed, mumbling, "about three hours of sleep."

"Oh, well that's going to make this a challenge." Chiyo raised her eyebrows in surprise, Midoriya had seemed like a typical healthy teenager, but only three hours of sleep? That had been unexpected. She was going to have to find a workaround.

Izuku glanced down at the torn muscles in his arm, watching the shredded tissue shift below his skin. With his free hand, he adjusted his sunglasses before asking, "can you just reattach the muscle to the bone? I can come in tomorrow morning for the rest."

"Hmm, well," Chiyo frowned, making a quick list of the boy's injuries to attempt triage. "Your knuckles and bruises are low priority."

"Yeah?"

"I should be able to just focus on the major muscular damage and let the rest heal naturally." It wasn't the sort of thing she liked doing, but it was possible.

"Okay, sounds good to me."

"How do you feel about scarring?"

Izuku snorted, gesturing to the scars that run up and down both his arms, across his chest and up into his hairline and under his clothes. "Seriously? It's not like I would even notice."

Chiyo wasn't going to argue with that, but she did wonder how it was that such a young boy had so many scars. Scars that looked surgical in nature.

"Alright then," Recovery Girl leaned down, focusing her quirk before she pressed a quick kiss to the boy's forehead and watching as the muscles that had come loose from the bone smoothed back into place and reattached.

"Whoah!" Izuku swayed in his seat, breathing sharply to try and stop the room from spinning. The feeling of his muscles moving of their own volition was difficult to describe. But the pain? The pain was straightforward.

The clusters of nerves that had been disconnected by the damage suddenly reconnecting sent spasms up his arm, lancing white hot agony into his brain. "Holy hell," he hissed, biting down on his lip and grabbing the arm of the chair with his free hand. "That hurts like hell!"

"Healing generally does," Chiyo said, turning away from her patient and collecting the supplies she needed to bandage the rest of the boys' injuries. Hands filled with bandages, medical tape, antiseptic and a sling, she turned back and set her armload onto the desk. "This may sting," she said as she opened the bottle of antiseptic.

Izuku nodded, gritting his teeth at the cold sting on his knuckles. He watched as the gauze and bandages were fixed in place and taped down. As soon as Recovery Girl let go of his hand, Izuku gently flexed his fingers and palm, testing the give of the bandage.

Wrapping and securing bandages up Izuku's injured arm, Chiyo stepped back and looked over the boy with a critical eye. She would have liked to heal more of his injury, but this was already a risk. Chiyo shook her head, wishing she could do more. "Put your shirt back on."

Izuku nodded, pulling his grey undershirt back over his head with barely a glance at the grey bloodstain on the sleeve. As soon as his shirt was on, Recovery Girl none too gently pulled the sling over the boys' head and adjusted it to keep his arm as still as possible.

"Aw man, a sling?" Izuku frowned, picking at the strap hanging around his neck. He didn't like the idea of not being able to use his arm at all while it was in a sling. "Lame."

"It may be _lame,_ but if you don't use it, you will be too."

"Was that… was that a joke?!" Izuku laughed loudly, throwing his head back. As he calmed down, he just shook his head and adjusted his sunglasses, a wide grin painted across his face.

"Of course it wasn't." Recovery Girl shook her head, gesturing towards the door. "Now go on back to class."

"Right, right." Izuku stood, folding his gym uniform top and draping it across his injured arm. "I'll be here tomorrow morning." He walked to the door, pushing it open with his uninjured hand. "I expect you to have more jokes by then."

"I've never made a joke in my life," Chiyo said, making shooing motions until the boy continued on his way out the door. "Now go on, get!"

Exhausted, he didn't even understand the bombardment of thoughts as he slipped into the classroom and sat in the only empty desk just in time for the bell to ring and signal the end of the day. "Oh my god," he muttered, standing and grabbing his backpack from the floor, leaving only to run into a concerned Shinsou on his way out the door.

"Midoriya, what's with the sling?" Shinsou grabbed Izuku's freshly healed arm, looking over the bandages that covered his hand and disappeared under his sleeve. "I thought you were getting healed?"

"She couldn't do it all at once; the muscle needs to rest overnight before I go in tomorrow morning." Izuku fell into step beside Shinsou, the two of them heading towards the exit. Ducking behind Shinsou for a few seconds, Izuku used him as a living barrier between himself and the security cameras. The green haired teen sighed, rolling his eyes behind his dark sunglasses, grumbling his next words under his breath. "And apparently only sleeping for three hours a night doesn't help with her quirk either."

Izuku continued, his lifeless and exhausted tone not betraying the seriousness of the issue. "And if I run out of stamina I will literally die," he said with a shrug.

"Huh. You should try not to do that." Shinsou raised his eyebrows at the notion that this was someone who slept even less than he did. Every time he learned more about Midoriya he wanted to know even more. "We should make an insomnia club."

Izuku grinned, tugging at his sling. "Mhh."

The two continued walking in comfortable and companionable silence, approaching the front gate when an authoritative voice rang out behind them. "Midoriya, wait for just a moment, please!"

Not stopping, Izuku blandly called back with an almost bored "what." He was too tired for this. He just wanted to go home and sleep for as long as he could.

Maybe he could get five hours if he really tried.

Iida caught up in a few long strides, gesturing awkwardly to the sling holding Izuku's previously shredded arm. "How's your injury?"

"He's fine." Shinsou glared at the other boy, tired eyes accusing. "What do you want?'

"I would," Iida adjusted his glasses nervously, avoiding even looking in Izuku's direction. "I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for my behavior that lead up to...

Izuku took the pause as his cue, and he said dryly, "the behavior that lead up to me making you vomit?"

Iida nodded vigorously, glad he hadn't had to describe the situation. "Yes, I shouldn't have assumed you were disrespecting your uniform."

"Thank you?" Izuku was thankful for the apology, but he really wasn't sure if it was necessary. He hadn't ever been apologized to by someone so earnest before. Or even been apologized to by a peer before.

Shinsou shook his head, expression a mixture of mockery and disappointment. "Hold on, is that the best you can do for an apology? Not even going to scrape and grovel? Not going to kiss his shoes?"

"Shinsou, what the hell, _no."_ Izuku adjusted his sunglasses anxiously, turning to Iida with a worried look. "Uh, please don't take him seriously."

From behind them, a voice called out over the sound of rushing footsteps. "Midoriya! Shinsou! Wait up!"

"Oh, it's the Sun Girl," Iida said once he realized who was calling to the two with him.

"Heh, more like Solar Power." Shinsou chuckled at his own joke, ignoring the feeling of a glare from Izuku. He had a feeling that the puns might be contagious, he had never felt like actually _saying_ them out loud before.

"Crap, I still don't know her name," Izuku mumbled, Shinsou only smirking to show that he had heard him. Turning to the girl, Izuku smiled shakily. "Hey, youuu?"

The girl saw through Izuku's poor attempt to hide his ignorance. "It's Uraraka Ochako, but that's okay if you didn't know!" She pointed to the sling and Izuku's bandaged hand. "How's your arm? Is that from that pitch?"

"My arm's fine." Izuku didn't elaborate, barely keeping himself together in the face of such genuine concern.

Shinsou smacked Izuku's uninjured arm softly, "thank her for worrying."

"Thank you," Izuku gritted out, closing his eyes behind the dark plastic of his sunglasses. He wasn't used to so many people talking to him. He wasn't used to _anyone_ actually _wanting_ to talk to him.

Uraraka pointed at the others, trying to match names with faces."And you're Iida Tenya and Shinsou Hitoshi?"

"Yes, that's me." Shinsou nodded once, putting his hands into his pockets and slouching as he walked beside Midoriya.

However, on the opposite end of the enthusiasm spectrum, Iida chopped the air rapidly while all but shouting. "A pleasure to meet you, I hope we can work well together in the coming year!"

"So formal." Shinsou rolled his eyes, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as the group of four headed to the train station.

Uraraka turned to Izuku with a curious expression, her hands tightly holding the straps of her backpack. "What did you say to Aizawa-sensei to get him to expel Mineta?"

"The truth," Izuku said, his eyes still closed as he walked.

Iida's thoughts loudly objected to Izuku's statement, and his words matched with them. Chopping the air and frowning, Iida asked, "excuse me, did you imply that you _purposely_ got Mineta expelled on the first day?"

"I'm not implying anything." Izuku rolled his eyes behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses, the only proof of his movement a slight shift in his eyebrows. He shrugged with his one good arm, "I'm not going to pretend that I didn't do it. I'll own up to it right now; I purposely got him expelled!"

Shinsou nodded. "Was the right thing to do."

"Hmm," Izuku grabbed onto one strap of his backpack with his free hand. He listened as Iida and Uraraka talked, with Shinsou adding his own thoughts in at random intervals.

He tuned out their thoughts, letting them fade into the background chatter while thinking about the events of the day.

He wasn't used to this many people willingly spending time around him. Most people avoided him, not wanting anyone to think they were friends with the freak. Not even the bullies wanted to be associated with him, his paranoia and constant twitching, random sounds and unreadable features made him something to be avoided.

The background noise of surface thoughts grew as the four students approached the train station and the crowd surrounding it.

Breaking through the dull roar of thoughts, Iida loudly stated, "Midoriya, we were just saying that we should trade cell phone numbers!"

"I don't have a phone," Izuku said blandly, watching the sky as the group moved through the thickening crowds around the train station. He hated seeing all those skeletons at once; it made it hard to process anything he saw.

Shinsou shot him a surprised look. "You don't have a phone?"

Iida frowned before he came back with a second idea. "Oh, then we can use-

Behind the black lenses, Izuku blinked slowly before he said, "I don't have a computer either."

 _What? How!?_

 _No computer_ _ **and**_ _no phone?_

 _Even I have a computer and phone!_

Izuku shrugged, "I don't understand why people let the government into their personal lives. Anything with a microphone or a GPS signal can track you and spy on you."

Uraraka stifled a giggle before she asked, "that's a little paranoid, don't you think?" She hadn't known that people actually _believed_ in those conspiracy theories!

"It's not paranoia if it's true." Izuku wasn't about to admit that he didn't watch tv either and he only used a radio for his news and entertainment needs. It's not like he _could_ watch tv, all he would see would be random bursts of grey and the internal wiring. And whatever was behind it for almost a quarter mile.

Iida adjusted his glasses, trying to find a way to include Izuku in his planning. "What about letters?"

"My mail goes to Hosu."

Shinsou's jaw dropped, and he openly stared, not caring how it might look to others. "What?!"

Izuku grinned slightly before following his answer with an unsatisfactory explanation. "It's under a pseudonym," he said, giving no other information.

"Excuse me?!"

"You're excused," Izuku said, his voice taking on a teasing tone.

 _What the hell?! Hosu?_

 _I should have my mail sent to Hosu, keep my parents out of it._

 _I need to ask my brother why someone would have their mail sent somewhere other than their house._

As the thoughts of his new friends whirled, Izuku patted the pocket of his jacket, finding the bottle of eye drops his mother had reminded him to bring. He could already feel the dryness of his eyes, normally dry, but now bordering on uncomfortable. Pushing his sunglasses up into his hair, Izuku tipped his head back, a few curious thoughts the only reaction to his actions.

"Do you get dry eye," Uraraka asked curiously as she watched Izuku put drops in one eye and then the other.

Izuku put the bottle of eye drops back in his pocket and lowered his sunglasses back down. "Yeah, my tear ducts don't work, and my eyes don't produce any moisture on their own."

"Is that a side effect of," Shinsou gestured to Iida, trying to mime the concept of causing people to vomit with eye contact.

Izuku just stared at him incomprehensibly, blinking in confusion. "...what?"

Shinsou gestured vaguely before giving up and saying right out, "you know, the puke thing?"

"Oh, why wouldn't you just say that?" Izuku shook his head; he was far too tired for this. Too tired to try and read into any sort of subtext.

"I didn't want to like, offend you?" Shinsou shrugged, putting his hands back into his pockets and staring straight ahead. He was trying to pretend what had just happened wasn't weird and awkward, but he wasn't very good at it.

"How would… what?"

"Most people don't like having their quirks explained to strangers."

"Oh." Izuku nodded, he was thankful that Shinsou had tried to be discrete, but he was far too tired to have made that connection. "But yeah, it's part of the 'puke thing.'"

"What's the puke thing," Uraraka asked curiously, not even sure if she really wanted to know.

Shinsou grinned evilly, and Iida just looked sick while Izuku tried to find the words to make any of this make sense.

 _You could just show her,_ Shinsou thought, his grin growing in size and deviousness. _Or not. I still think it was hilarious when Iida got what was coming to him. Justice. Heroic justice._

Izuku snorted, if only Shinsou knew that Izuku could hear every word he had just thought. Actually, he was glad Shinsou didn't know he could hear him. People weren't exactly fond of mind readers.

Tapping at the frame of his sunglasses, Izuku explained. "I can make people vomit uncontrollably with a second of eye contact." He shrugged, grinning lopsidedly, "can't cry either, so I'm the best to tell sad stories too."

"Oh. Oh my." Uraraka shook her head, trying to collect herself enough to get her words out. "That's so…

Izuku raised his eyebrows curiously, wondering where this was going.

"That's so _sad!"_ Uraraka sniffled, eyes watering as she realized exactly what Izuku tried to hide with jokes and laughter. _Never being able to truly connect with someone, it's just, it's heartbreaking!_

What.

 _It really is tragic, never being able to look someone in the eye._

WHAT.

 _Never able to look at someone without worrying you'll hurt them._

 **WHAT.**

Alright, this was too much, Izuku didn't know how to handle this. He didn't even know that this was!

Izuku attempted to wave away their concern, shaking his head and stuttering, "I, no, it's not, uh, it's really not that bad, honestly!"

"I don't know if I would be strong enough to live like that," Uraraka confessed, her voice taking on a tone of careful awe. "I wouldn't be able to do it."

"Stop acting like I'm some sort of, of, _emotional martyr_ just for keeping my quirk under control!" Izuku grabbed onto the strap of his backpack and walked faster, keeping his head down as he pulled away from the group and pushed his way towards the train. He couldn't deal with this, not right now, most likely not at all.

"Midoriya, wait!"

"We didn't mean to offend you,"

"You didn't, I just," Izuku shook his head, shoving his hand deep into his pockets as he avoided looking at his companions. "I just don't like being treated like I'm doing something impossible when it's just a normal part of my life."

As the quartet moved through the crowd and boarded the train car, Izuku continued to avoid looking at the three others. He shrugged, his shoulders hunched as he unconsciously attempted to make himself less noticeable. "Sorry for just freaking out like that, today has just been a _lot."_ Izuju straightened up, watching the black and greys of the train station before he spoke. "But even if you might think living with a quirk like this is impossible, I've been doing it for years."

"It's just part of who I am," he mumbled, signaling that the conversation was over. Sighing, he leaned against the wall of the train car, tilting his head back and letting the ocean of thoughts lap at his mind while staring through the ceiling while Uraraka, Shinsou, and Iida attempted to revive the conversation.

Izuku nodded at the appropriate intervals and made vague sounds of agreement, hoping he didn't sound too disinterested. After nearly ripping his arm apart, that awkward encounter with All Might and being healed, he just wanted to eat dinner and sleep.

For the first time all week, he and his mother were actually going to be having dinner together. A little celebration.

Izuku wasn't sure how he felt about that, his feelings towards his mother still sharp even after they have begun to try and fix things.

"Bye Shinsou, bye Iida!" Uraraka poked Izuku's arm, pulling him from his trance-like state. "I'll see you tomorrow, Midoriya!"

Izuku just smiled weakly and nodded, his threshold for conversation long past.

Shinsou and Iida said their goodbyes before settling into an awkward calm, neither of them knowing how to begin a conversation without someone else to lead it.

More train stations were passed, passengers getting on and getting off, carrying briefcases, backpacks, boxes, and tools. Heading home for the night or heading out for it.

"Well, this is my stop." Iida stood, adjusting his glasses before gesturing energetically, his motions somehow unhampered with the lack of space or being surrounded by dozens more train passengers. "Good day, Shinsou. Thank you for your patience with me Midoriya."

"Bye, Iida," Shinsou said with the barest hint of a smirk. He and Iida might not have gotten off to a good start, but that was fixable.

Hopefully.

"Yeah, not a problem, Iida." Izuku nodded, straightening up and watching as Iida was swept into the current of exiting passengers.

More time passed, bringing Izuku closer and closer to his stop and whipping Shinsou's thoughts into a frenzy.

 _I don't know if I can go home yet, they said they would be back late. I don't want to be alone in that apartment._

Izuku glanced towards his friend, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to connect the dots. "Hey, Shinsou?"

 _Get it together idiot; he's a stranger, he doesn't want to know about your problems._ He straightened in his seat, trying to push away his cluttered worries. "Hmm?"

Sure he now had a decent idea of why Shinsou was so worried, Izuku asked, "want to come over for dinner tonight? My mom is making katsudon."

 _Oh, thank god._ Shinsou let out a mental sigh of relief, grabbing onto Izuku's offering with a vice-like grasp. "Yeah, that would be great."

He didn't have problems at home; his parents didn't do anything _wrong,_ just sometimes, they didn't try to do things right. And Shinsou couldn't really blame them; they had jobs, they were busy. They couldn't always make time for him, even if he wished they could.

Izuku nodded, his mother always told him he had a standing invitation to bring a friend home, but he had never used it before. Besides, Izuku had a feeling his mother had only said that to try and make him make friends. "Cool, cool. Uh, she's probably going to be a little overbearing, yeah?" Izuku shrugged, taking his hand from his pocket and rubbing at the back of his neck.

"I'm not very good at making friends, and she's probably gonna have a ton of questions."

"Alright, that sounds fine." Shinsou grinned, a wave of relief washing over him. _Better than fine, so much better._

The two sat in the train in silence, waiting for Izuku's stop. This was new territory for the both of them, and maybe things wouldn't be so bad with someone by their side.

Then again, if Izuku's anxieties were right, it was all going to be so much worse.


	9. Chapter 9

"So, what did you think," Shinsou asked, gripping the straps of his backpack as they left the train station and pushed through the crowd towards the sidewalk.

Too busy watching a familiar spiky blond head of hair to really pay attention to the question, Izuku asked absently, "huh? Thin-think about what?"

He couldn't focus. Bakugou hadn't even tried to speak to him even though they had both been on the same train car, not even five feet from the other for the entire ride. Even with his stubborn silence Izuku had heard his thoughts continuously circle back to him.

It was almost flattering in a way.

All of that insecurity and anxiety, a bit of pride and hope. Jealousy and so much internalized anger. Honestly, more emotional complexity than Izuku would have expected from Bakugou if he didn't know any better.

He could tell that Bakugou had been listening in on the conversations around him, wanting to join in with Izuku and his new group of, Izuku was hesitant to call them friends, but was unable to make himself do so.

Unaware of Izuku's wandering mind, Shinsou shrugged and explained his question. "UA, hero course, Eraserhead as our homeroom teacher, it's all pretty intense, isn't it?" Shinsou's grip tightened on the straps of his bag when he mentioned Eraserhead. The underground hero hadn't made any allusions to his hero name, but Shinsou just _knew_ it was him.

After all, you don't follow someone's career for as long as he had without being able to recognize them immediately.

"Yeah, too bad I busted my arm up during the test." Izuku flexed his injured hand, shifting his arm in the sling slightly, sparks of pain bursting and fizzling out along his torn muscles. Having been able to sit and rest for the last forty-five minutes on the train back home had taken the edge off of his exhaustion, leaving him about where he normally was. Tired, in desperate need of a few cups of coffee, but not about to drop dead where he stood.

Shinsou snorted, eyes bright as he threw his hands up, "are you kidding me? The way you still ended up in seventh place with only one working arm?" Shinsou grinned crookedly, jostling Izuku's shoulder with his own. "Man, that was so scary cool." He had never seen anything like it in his life, that determination and drive. _So badass, too,_ he thought, excitement stirring his thoughts.

"'Scary cool,' huh?" Izuku rolled his eyes, laughing quietly and he grinned, showing far too many teeth while ignoring the way those around him mentally cringed at the sight.

Shinsou nodded, still gripping the straps of his backpack tightly. "Mhm, I think about half the class seems to think you don't feel pain." _I wonder how many it really is._

"It's a bit less than half," Izuku corrected thoughtlessly, looking through the thinning crowd ahead of them, trying to avoid running into people. "Only three of them actually do." The boy with the tail, the girl with the quirk he couldn't figure out, and the girl with the horns and terrifying organs unlike anything he had ever seen in his life.

He really needed to learn their names before he embarrassed himself in front of them.

Well, embarrassed himself more than he had by dropping out of the ceiling then punching himself in the face during the test.

And he should probably find out where they lived and create a map of their movements and travel patterns. What they do on their days off, how they get to UA, if they have friends in different schools, things like that.

It's not paranoia, he might just need that information it one day.

Really, he swears it's not paranoia.

Blissfully ignorant to Izuku's planning for the future, Shinsou glanced down at his companion, his eyebrows furrowed as he processed what he had just heard. "Wait, what?"

Was it possible?

Did he just answer a question he hadn't even asked yet?

Izuku swore mentally, cursing his lack of focus. "Nothing, don't worry about it." He waved away Shinsou's confused look and he quickly changed the subject before he could put the clues together. "So, your parents work long hours," Izuku asked, the two now walking side by side down the busy sidewalk, Izuku ducking back every few minutes, using Shinsou as a human shield from the few security cameras on the street.

"How did," Shinsou stopped in the middle of the sentence before he shook his head. There was something about Midoriya that he didn't know yet, he could just feel it. Frowning slightly, he sighed, "yeah, long hours."

"Inko, uh, my mom works two jobs, so I get it." Izuku kept his eyes on the pavement, following the fiber-optic lines and water pipes under the sidewalk. There was a rat tunnel getting very close to the fiber-optics and about a meter further, there was a steady leak in the water line. Eventually, it would turn into a sinkhole, but that wasn't his problem.

"You call your mom by her first name?" Shinsou looked down at Izuku with a conflicted look on his face. He didn't know what sort of family Midoriya had, but that just seemed… disrespectful.

"Heh, yeah, we have, uh, an odd dynamic." Izuku shrugged, not sure how else to put it. "She knows I can take care of myself, and I know that she cares, but we're still working to not be so distant."

"So, like friends instead of family," Shinsou asked curiously, watching as Izuku's face darkened for a moment before he schooled his features into a bland mask moments before he answered.

"I wish." Struggling not to scowl, Izuku shook his head. "More like casual acquaintances that see each other at work once a day instead of family." The two of them had tried to bond like family in the past few weeks, but it was awkward and almost uncomfortable, neither of them quite ready to finally bridge the gap between them.

"Alright, that is odd." Shinsou paused for a moment before he asked, "Is it because of your quirk?" A quirk that could make people sick would explain a bit or maybe... a thought ran through his head, turning his stomach as it bubbled to the forefront of his conscious. _Are you just like me?_

"Sort of." Izuku swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry as he heard Shinsou's worry. He shrugged with one shoulder before kicking at a rock on the sidewalk, the stone clattering off into the distance in many more pieces than it had been before. "My, uh, quirk, it has a lot of complexities. Makes people uncomfortable."

 _Makes them scared, you mean._ "I get that." Shinsou nodded, "I can't really practice with my quirk, it scares people too much." He sighed, _I really do get it._

"I would tell you that you could practice on me, but I'm not sure how well it would work out." He was lying. Izuku knew exactly how it would work. It would work beyond the normal scope of Shinsou's abilities, he wouldn't just be compliant, he would be willing. He would _want_ to be brainwashed and would fight to keep himself that way. Would struggle to keep himself from needing to think.

Just one more thing he could thank his doctor for.

"Hmm." Shinsou glanced at Izuku and wondered exactly what it was he meant by that. Did he have experience with brainwashing? What kind of life did he live to make him so awkward and paranoid?

Instead of voicing any of his concerns, Shinsou stared blankly forward and said, "did you know your blood is grey?"

"Wh what." Izuku turned to stare at Shinsou's face, his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.

Shinsou nodded, still staring forward as the two continued down the backstreets Izuku knew like the bones in his hand. "Yep, it's grey." He frowned slightly, "well, it's still red, just a _grey_ red, you know what I mean?"

"No, not really," Izuku admitted, cheeks heating slightly with the shame of admitting one of his weakness. To most people, color blindness would be nothing to be ashamed of, but since this wasn't the lot he had been given when he was born, he couldn't help but feel he should have some degree of control over it.

Mind over matter, or something like that.

"Well, its grey and really unsettling," Shinsou said with a shrug, immediately regretting his word choices. Avoiding Izuku's gaze, he released the straps of his backpack to put his hands into his pockets, attempting to act casual in the face of his own mistake.

"Oh." Izuku frowned, not sure how he was supposed to respond to that. He really hadn't known his blood was grey, besides, it wasn't like he could have been able to tell the difference anyway.

Silence settled between the two, not quite comfortable, but it was calm. Still as the surface of a frozen lake, but nowhere near as cold.

"So, we're here," Izuku said, stopping in the parking lot outside the apartment building, so much shorter than the others around it. He pointed behind him, not even needing to look to see what he was pointing out. He knew it was there, watching him. "Watch out for the cat across the street, there's something off about that one."

Shinsou blinked slowly, turning back and looking at the orange ball of fur perched on the fencepost across the street. He turned back to Izuku, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. "...it's a cat, what can be wrong with that?"

"Just trust me on this, that cat is evil." Izuku shrugged, leading Shinsou up the stairs. He wanted to take the drainpipe, but he had seen the muscle on Shinsou's arm, or more the lack of muscle. Beside's, he had been going through the window almost every day for the past two weeks, it was time to switch up his routine, let himself be seen, but not recorded. After all, never seeing a teenager was more suspicious then rarely seeing a teenager.

"I think it's watching you," Shinsou said, glancing back down at the cat after a few steps. There really _was_ just something off about that cat. Its color, the way it seemed to never blink, the sheer size of it. He had never seen a cat quite like it.

"Told you, evil," Izuku said thoughtlessly, palming his pockets in search of his keys. He could swear he had put them in his jacket pocket on the way out the door that morning. He continued to pat himself down, finally finding his keys in the right pocket of his pants.

Wasn't that just his luck, putting his keys in the pocket he could barely reach with his uninjured arm. Honestly, at this point, he was willing to believe he was cursed.

Cursed to always be minorly inconvenienced when he least expects it.

His thoughts coming to a stop at the same time he did, Izuku gestured to the apartment door. Unlocking it, he let it swing open, the smell of crispy pork and simmering vegetables wafting out. "So, this is me. Shoes off at the door, yeah?"

Shinsou followed the other inside, taking off his backpack and unbuttoning the jacket of his uniform. "What, you're not so paranoid you want me to turn my phone off," he joked, hanging both items on the pegs on the wall.

"Actually…" Izuku trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he firmly fixed his gaze at the wall instead of looking directly at his guest.

Shinsou just stared before kicking off his shoes and placing them beside the other two pairs on the mat beside the door. "Seriously?"

Izuku nodded, stepping out of his unlaced shoes and hanging his jacket and bag. "Yep."

"Oh my god." Shinsou rolled his eyes before shrugging and turning off his phone. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was going to try calling him for the next three hours. Following the other teen deeper into the apartment, he let his gaze roamed over the room, taking stock as he went.

No family pictures, no decorations, no knick-knacks, no coats or jackets draped on the back of chairs, no disorder of any kind.

No sign that a teenager even lived there.

No sign that _anyone_ even lived there.

If it weren't for the smell of katsudon, the sounds in the kitchen and the shoes at the door, it would look like a display from a home catalog, boring, devoid of all personality, almost cold, dark, and empty even with the lights and heat on.

"Inko, I'm home!" Izuku called towards the kitchen, watching his mother cooking through the wall. "And I brought a friend!"

"You did?" Inko's voice floated from the kitchen, upbeat and bright. "Izuku, it's about time!"

"Hey, well, okay then." Shaking his head, Izuku stretched his good arm up and over his head, the joints popping and crunching with effort. "I need some coffee," he grumbled, still watching his mother through the wall.

"We're nearly out, pick some more up later tonight, okay?" Inko stepped out of the kitchen, a kitchen knife in one hand and an oven mitt on the other. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of the sling Izuku was wearing before she heaved a dramatic internal sigh. _How did you injure yourself now? Silly boy, go make yourself some coffee._

"Sure, sure." Behind the black lenses, Izuku rolled his eyes and waved away his mothers concern. "Whatever."

Gesturing with the handle of the knife, Inko pointed to Shinsou, the purple haired teen standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room. "And who is this, then?"

"This is Shinsou, he's cool," Izuku answered, adjusting his sunglasses. He paused, pretending to weigh his words carefully. "Well, he's alright."

"Wow, thanks." _Just 'alright,' am I? Well, better than what I usually get._ Shinsou smiled uncomfortably, his palms sweaty and fingers nervously tapping on his thighs.

Stepping a little closer, Inko gave the teen a once over, wanting to put her suspicions to rest. "So, how did Izuku trick you into being his friend," Inko asked brightly, a smile on her face that barely masked her calculating gaze.

Her son hadn't developed such a strong sense of paranoia on his own, after all, and Inko might not be as outwardly worried, but she still worried nonetheless.

It had been years since her son had even had an acquaintance, much less a friend. The fact that he could look past his paranoia to make a connection and then bring them back to his home? That was a huge step forward for him, but part of her worried that this might just be too good to be true.

"Uh," Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck under the intensity of Inko's stare. He wasn't used to talking to people who were carrying knives, even if they were kind looking women who were in the middle of cooking dinner. "What?"

"Inko, please, I didn't _trick_ him." Izuku scuffed the toe of his shoe on the floor, glancing to the side awkwardly. "It's not my fault if he's too trusting," he said with complete sincerity.

"You think everyone is too trusting." Inko shook her head before she turned back to Shinsou. "Hello, Shinsou, are you in Izuku's class?"

"Um, yes ma'am." Shinsou locked his gaze on his shoes, uncomfortably avoiding eye contact as he tried to hide the fact that he was wiping his sweaty palms on his pants.

"Ma'am?" Inko shook her head, "oh, none of that, just call me Inko. Or Midoriya-san. Or you can just call me 'Izuku's mother.' It would be a little weird, but you can do that," she rambled on for a bit before cutting herself off.

When she and Izuku had stopped spending time together she had still needed someone to talk to, even if had only been herself.

"Okay?"

"People _are_ too trusting," Izuku mumbled his retort in the middle of Inko and Shinsou's introduction, rolling his eyes at the awkward exchange before heading into the kitchen. He really needed his coffee before he passed out on the floor.

Shinsou watched the green-haired teen head into the kitchen, grumbling under his breath about ' _how hard can it be to make coffee with only one hand? I'll be fine, won't I? Not like my luck can get any worse, yeah?'_ Turning back to Inko Shinsou asked quietly, "if he doesn't sleep should he really be drinking coffee this late in the day?"

"Well, no he shouldn't. But when he doesn't get his coffee he gets very cranky," Inko answered with a nod, no longer warily watching the teen. If Izuku trusted them, she was sure she could do the same.

Eventually. Maybe.

From the kitchen, Izuku called out in protest, "I don't get cranky!"

"See?" Inko smiled and chuckled softly. "Cranky."

"I'm not cranky," Izuku yelled back, indignation creeping into his tone.

"If you're not cranky, then what are you," Inko called back, cracking a soft smile as she fought to contain her laughter. She had missed this. Things were getting better, but it was oh so slow.

A moment passed before Izuku stuttered out a reply, calling back, "I'm, uh, I'm, hmm. Oh! I'm wondering if I should remove my fingerprints to make sure I can never be found by the government!"

"Oh." Shinsou shrugged, "you know what? I actually believe that." He might not know the other teen very well, but with his jumpiness, twitchy nature, the lack of phone and belief that said phone could be spying on you? It just made sense for him to be that paranoid.

"You should!" From the kitchen came the sound of the running coffee machine and Izuku's voice undercut with the steady beat of him anxiously drumming his fingers on the kitchen countertop. "You should believe it because it's the truth! The truth indeed!"

Inko shook her head, her voice becoming a faux-conspiratorial stage whisper. "It's not the truth, he already tried to take his fingerprints off last month." She sighed, shaking her head at the memory before flatly saying, "it didn't work."

After the… _incident,_ she had been cleaning up pieces of sandpaper and broken glass for weeks!

"Oh, that's," Shinsou went quiet, "okay then, I have no more words."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it in a few days."

Shinsou shook his head, "I don't think I want to get used to it!"

"I hope you like bad puns and impossible conspiracy theories," Inko said with a laugh, only laughing harder at the almost mournful look on Shinsou's face. She didn't need to be able to read minds like Izuku to tell just how much the purple haired teen was regretting this.

"Inko, the pork is almost done," Izuku said as soon as he was out the door, the steam from his giant mug of coffee fogging up the black lenses of his sunglasses while he drank. He stepped back into the kitchen to emerge once more with the entire coffeepot and a wooden potholder, walking over to the table and setting both items down at his seat.

"Oh, right!" Inko gestured to the kitchen with the handle of the kitchen knife, "Shinsou, can you help Izuku set the table while I get everything ready?"

Izuku just rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath, "I don't need help just because I'm injured." He huffed out an irate breath before carefully arranging his features. "'M not a baby."

Ignoring Izuku's protest, Shinsou answers hesitantly. "Sure?" Once Inko had stepped back into the warm kitchen, Shinsou turned to Izuku, watching as he just continued to drink his coffee with a blank look on his face. "Your mom seems nice." _A little odd, but nice._

"Yup, she really is." He just wished she was as nice in her thoughts as she was with her words.

Izuku nodded, setting his now half-empty coffee cup back down. "Oof, I needed that." He tugged at the stiff strap of the sling, glaring at the irritating piece of fabric before waving for Shinsou to follow him into the kitchen. "So, plates are just in this cabinet, but we don't need those. And bowls are right next to them."

He shrugged with one shoulder before pointing to the drawer with an extremely large and varied collection of mismatched utensils. He continued speaking as he stacked the bowls on the counter, "napkins are in the box beside the sink, utensils in there." Hefting a precariously stacked tower of bowls and cups, two more wooden potholders and a steaming teapot stacked on top of them all. Izuku turned back towards the door, "I'll do the heavy lifting if you can just grab those."

Shinsou nodded, watching the tower of glass and wood tilt and wobble dangerously in Izuku's hand as he left the kitchen. Waiting to hear a crash of breaking glass, he wordlessly hurried through his assigned task and followed, setting mismatched cloth napkins beside the three poorly arranged place settings, straightening them out as he went.

He wondered how Midoriya had managed to get the teapot onto the table without dropping everything or spilling the tea all over the place. He looked across the table to where the green-haired teen was already sitting and pouring himself a second cup of coffee, sipping it quietly while he watched Shinsou straighten the settings.

Shinsou could swear he could feel Midoriya's gaze on him through the black of his glasses, like the weak heat of a far-too bright flashlight. He scratched at the back of his neck nervously, avoiding looking in the others direction for too long. He just couldn't seem to get any real read on Midoriya, he was a walking contradiction.

He seemed to have an aura that unintentionally drew attention to him, but he seemed terrified to be watched. He was paranoid beyond even the most devout of conspiracy theorists but seemed to quickly decide to trust those he met with no hesitation. Shinsou stepped around the table and sat at the empty seat beside him. "You're a weird guy, you know that, right?"

Izuku nodded, too many times and too fast, "I know." In all honesty, people telling him he was weird was something he was used to by now, and wasn't that depressing as all hell?

Shinsou sat quietly for a moment, the only sound in the room were the ones that drifted out of the kitchen. "Do you really not have a phone," he asked, not believing that someone living in this century didn't have any connection with the world around them.

"Anyone with any hacking skill, or even a technopathic quirk can spy on you through your phone." Izuku shrugged, spinning his coffee cup on its coaster with the palm of his hand as he continued. "And that's the _best_ option. Worst case scenario, the government can use them to track you, record your conversations and even use hypersonic and subsonic frequencies to plant subliminal messages into your mind when you're asleep."

"..." Shinsou simply went quiet, not sure if he could ever hope to come up with a reply to such an outlandish theory. "Oh."

"Yeah, and that's nothing compared to the messages you can find in television!" Izuku pointed at the tv, then to the mass of radios on the table beside it. "That's why I get all my news from the radio, or from unbiased independent sources."

"What the hell does that mean, no, wait." Shinsou shook his head and raised his hands in an attempt to ward off more nonsense. "Nevermind, I really, _really,_ don't want to know." He wiped his hands on his pants nervously, not sure how to keep the conversation going.

What was he supposed to talk about? Hero trends? Sports? The internet was right out so that just left… the _weather?!_

That wouldn't do, but he had nothing else to fall back on.

Shinsou stared blankly ahead as his mind slowly ground to a halt in the face of attempting to initiate small talk. _I'm going to make a damn fool of myself, I can't talk about the weather!_

Thankfully, before he could begin, Izuku stood, rolling his shoulders back with a muffled crunch and grind. "Suit yourself," he pointed to the kitchen with his uninjured hand, "I'm gonna go help Inko serve dinner, bathrooms down the hall to the right if you need it." He turned to the kitchen, hiding his laughter as he went.

It looked like he and Shinsou had more in common than he had thought.

"Right, got it." Shinsou nodded, heaving an internal sigh of relief as the weight of social interaction was lifted from his shoulders. "Oh thank god," he muttered, grabbing onto the escape he had been given, nearly sprinting to the bathroom once he saw Midoriya disappear into the kitchen.

* * *

The door locked behind him and Shinsou felt a breath he had been holding finally get itself loose from his chest.

His hands twisted in the hem of his shirt, fingers searching desperately for a loose thread to tug at and unravel. Forcibly, he removed his hands from their death grip and he leaned against the back of the door, pressing his hands over his face.

He hated this.

He usually had so much _control,_ over his actions, his reactions, just about everything he did he made sure he was in control. But moments like this, these few and far between minutes where he felt lost and out of his comfort zone, he just began to spiral and couldn't make it stop until he could get away.

Stepping away from the door, Shinsou stood nearly silent on the small bathroom, staring down his reflecting in the mirror above the sink. He poked at the dark circles under his eyes, the color the product of a bad night's sleep. A bad night's sleep that was going on for three weeks now.

He smiled, and his reflection smiled crookedly back at him, the action only making him look cocky and smug instead of the personable attitude he had been going for.

Gripping the sides of the sink, he leaned forward, staring down his reflection. "Get ahold of yourself, Hitoshi, you coward. Just because you haven't had a friend for years doesn't mean you need to panic." He turned on the water, glaring at his reflection the entire time he washed his hands before cranking it to cold and splashing the water onto his face. "He's just a person, a really weird one, but still only a person."

He dragged his hands down his face, letting his breathing slow back to normal as he looked around the small bathroom. It was just as sparsely decorated as the rest of the apartment, the only personal touches was a massive and well stocked first aid kit on the back of the toilet, complete with over six orange prescription bottles with the labels blacked out aside from the instructions. Aside from that, there were two separate sets of toiletries, one neatly arranged by size, and the other set in a plastic carrying case, the red tie of the UA uniform draped over it.

That tie, tacky fake silk, was the only thing that actually proved the bathroom wasn't just for show.

The lack of decor on the stark white walls reminded him of photographs of prison cells. Every surface cleaned within an inch of its life, the room smelling only of powerful cleaners and an underlying scent of floral soap.

Part of his mind was nearly certain that if the room was dusted for fingerprints, his would be the only ones found.

Shinsou dried his hands and took one more glance in the mirror before heading back out into what had so far already been the strangest social moment of his entire life, already topping the mindblowing exhilarating terror of the practical exam.

The two strangest moments of his life, less than a month apart.

He really hoped this wasn't going to be a trend.

"So, Shinsou, what inspired you to be a hero," Inko asked, truly curious and hoping that Izuku's new… _friend_ was as much an idealist as he was.

"Um, I feel like I shouldn't say, it's not very heroic." Shinsou avoided Izuku's invisible gaze, knowing he was being stared down from behind those black lenses.

"Come on, it can't be _that_ bad," Izuku said, rolling his eyes with an exaggerated motion, the action still nearly lost behind his black sunglasses. "Not as if you're doing this for _fame_ or anything like that."

The fact that there were people who just wanted to attention filled him with emotions he didn't want to say were disgust, but that would be lying.

"I want to be a hero because of," Shinsou looked down at the table, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment, "because of spite."

"That's a good enough reason," Inko said, taking a sip of her tea and watching Shinsou with an expectant expression. She wasn't sure what it was that her son saw in Shinsou, but she could see a young man with a troubled past and a strong will that refused to be bent. And an idealistic streak a mile wide, the same as her son.

Izuku raised his mug of coffee, giving Shinsou a faux toast. "Yeah, lots of people do great things out of spite. Lamborghini, America existing, uh that one's not so great. Well, potato chips. Science fiction," Izuku trailed off before forcing himself back onto his original train of thought before he got too carried away. "Heck, some people in the class only decided a few months ago that they wanted to be heroes," he continued, frowning slightly as he set his coffee back down.

He might be the only person who knew that people in class might not all have the most _heroic_ of reasons, himself included, but he knew how much it helped to know you weren't the only person who had those sort of motivations.

"Oh, I didn't think that people would, you know?" Shinsou gestured vaguely, trying to convey his thoughts without words. He shrugged, "I didn't think people would respect me as much for it." It didn't make any sort of sense to think that, but he couldn't help the feeling of being unwanted that had been tempered into his very soul ever since his quirk had manifested itself. "That those who had been working and training for this for years wouldn't think I was worthy."

"Then they're idiots," Inko said bluntly, not wasting any time with unnecessary words.

Izuku nodded, talking around a mouthful of rice and pork. "Mhm, took the words right out of my mouth."

Shinsou's eyes went wide and he stared at Inko in shock, "Midoriya-san, you can't say that!"

No adult other than his parents had ever stood up for him, and he had always known, a sort of instinct, that it had only been out of obligation on their part. But even in just saying anyone who looked down on him was an idiot, it was more than he had ever had before.

"But it's the truth," Inko said, setting her teacup down with a solid _clat_ of glazed ceramic on wood. "If people didn't respect you for doing good things just because it's not for a 'noble' reason, then you don't want those kinds of people respecting you in the first place."

"Wow, Inko, that was eloquent," Izuku muttered, his voice muffled as he continued to eat, willingly and happily ducking out of the conversation.

"Thank's Midoriya-san, that means a lot." Shinsou picked up his teacup, the warmth of the ceramic bleeding into his hand, matching the warmth bleeding into his heart from those around him.

* * *

It was officially a trend.

"Izuku?" Inko stood in the center of the living room, tapping her foot expectantly, her arms crossed over her chest and her entire being all but bristled with frustration.

Izuku raised his eyebrows in mock politeness and he leaned his chair back onto its rear legs. "Yes, Inko?"

"Would you care to tell me why All Might just climbed in through the window?"

"Because the door is locked?" Izuku smiled, the expression not doing anything to convince Inko that he had no real answer for her.

Inko sighed exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. "You knew he was coming, didn't you."

"I had a hunch," Izuku admitted with a shrug, leaning even further back in his seat, rocking the chair back even more on its hind legs. "I wasn't completely sure, but eh, whatever."

"No, not 'whatever,'" Shinsou interrupted, standing and pointing to where All Might stood awkwardly beside the window. "All Might is in your apartment!" Shinsou's eyes were wide and he rapidly glanced between Izuku and the number one hero, freezing when he saw the lack of concern on Izuku's face. "And you don't look like you care," he said, one of his hands reaching up and tangling itself in his gravity-defying hair. "Why don't you care?"

Izuku sat up a little straighter and raised his eyebrows, doing nothing else to change his expression. "I care! Look how much I care!"

Shinsou just stared and his shoulders slumped in defeat. "... you didn't even do anything. You could at least _pretend_ to care..." He wasn't even sure why he felt defeated, he was less than five feet away from All Might himself, the greatest hero who ever lived, and all he wanted to do was sit down and hide behind his hands until things stopped being so confusing and strange.

"Fine, maybe I _was_ expecting this."

"Why would you be… do I even _want_ to know how you know All Might?"

"..." Izuku leaned forward, his chair finally sitting with all four legs on the floor. He looked up at Shinsou from behind his black lenses, trying to convey what it was he was feeling. "Do you? It involves breaking and entering and cleaning the beach," he joked, leaning his chair back once again.

He really wasn't sure how to deal with this, his mother, his new friend and his, whatever All Might was to him, all in one room. It was overwhelming.

"Okay, I don't want to know, don't tell me anything." Shinsou shook his head, waving his hands in an attempt to protect himself from any words that may come his way.

"See, I told you that you would get used to it." Inko laughed, still watching All Night as the hero lingered awkwardly beside the open window. _But I don't think I_ _ **want**_ _to get used to it, I mean damn, just look at that man. That shirt looks just about painted on. He should climb through the window more often._

"Ew, Inko!" Izuku slammed the chair back into all four legs, his hand pressed over his ears in a desperate attempt to block out his mother's thoughts. "Gross, never think any of that ever again!"

"I'm not sorry," Inko said, eyes bright with mischief as she continued to stare.

"Well, you should be, ew!"

"I have no clue what's happening, so I'm just gonna get more food." But he didn't go to get more food, Shinsou just couldn't move from where he stood in the center of the insanity. As much as his sense of self-preservation was screaming at him to leave before his brain melted, his legs refused to respond to his attempts to flee.

"I'm so sorry, Midoriya, I didn't know you had a friend over for dinner." After he had watched Izuku shred his arm in the quirk assessment, which he absolutely hadn't been spying on, Toshinori had been thinking of ways to help cheer up his mentee without seeming like he was overstepping his boundaries. And coming through the door just seemed like it was a step too far for some reason.

Unfortunately, he hadn't made a plan beyond 'climb in the window' and only had the vague outline of 'make sure your not-son is alright.' Toshinori shifted awkwardly, somehow managing to make himself look small even though he towered over everything in the room, "I should just go, shouldn't I?"

"It was," Izuku paused, not sure how to say 'I all but forced him to come with me by means of peer pressure,' without sounding like a creep. "It was a last minute arrangement," was what he settled on, slowly climbing out of his seat, his knees popping and crunching quietly as he did. "Ooh, crunchy," he muttered, trying and failing not to stumble forward.

He steadied himself with a quiet "whoops," attempting to act as if he had meant to do that and this time failing to even convince himself.

"I brought you something," Toshinori said, patting down the oversized pockets of his cargo pants, pulling out a set of rolled magazines. He held them out and waited for Izuku to take them, rushing out an explanation as he avoided looking towards Izuku's mother, just _knowing_ that she was still staring at him. "You weren't able to pick up your issue of Conspiracy this week, so I grabbed one for you along with an issue of The Lone Gunman."

"Wait, The Lone Gunman?" Izuku grinned widely, the crooked expression lighting up his face. He clutched the rolled magazines to his chest with his good arm, nearly hopping in his excitement. "That's so, how did you know?!"

"I asked the stand owner what the ultimate resource for conspiracy theories was and he told me." And hadn't that been awkward, he was sure he looked like a weirdo, lurking and waiting for nearly ten minutes before he had convinced himself to ask for help.

"Amazing," Izuku gasped, looking over the dull greys on the cover of what would now be his most coveted and prized possession. "Oh my god, this is, this is so great," he exclaimed, acting on instinct and grabbing ahold of his mentor in the most awkward one-armed hug anyone had ever experienced.

Toshinori froze for nearly a full second before he returned the hug, patting Izuku on the back before he couldn't take it anymore. His smile dropped as he tried to step back, one of his feet pinned in place by all of Izuku's weight. "You're on my foot!"

"Sorry, I just…" Izuku took a step back, nearly vibrating in place from his glee. "Thank you so much!"

Toshinori barely resisted the urge to grab his foot from the pain, instead he just balanced most of his weight on one foot, trying to ignore the stinging and throbbing sensation from the other. "You weigh a ton, kid. My toes, are they broken?"

He didn't want to look, but he also didn't want to have to explain to Recovery Girl how he broke his toes in his off time.

"Your foot is fine, and I don't weigh a ton!" Izuku glared up at him from behind his black lenses, smacking at All Mights arm with the rolled up magazines. "I only weigh four hundred and sixty-three pounds, that's not a ton!" Izuku huffed, attempting to cross his arms, momentarily forgetting about his injury and slapping his injured arm, sending a jolt of pain through the damaged muscle. He continued his angry rant, halfheartedly finishing with a closing statement of, "that's not even half a ton!"

And it wasn't. It wasn't even a quarter of a ton.

Easily fending off Izuku's 'attack' with one hand, Toshinori laughed, the sound bouncing and echoing off every wall and filling the room. "That explains why you're constantly denting things," he said, thinking of the constant swath of damage the teenager left behind him.

"I'm not that heavy!" Sure, most of them were adults, but there were plenty of people heavier than he was, All Might included!

"You're pretty heavy," Toshinori continued, ruffling Izuku's hair mindlessly as he spoke. "Especially for a kid."

"This is really weird," Shinsou muttered, watching as Izuku and All Might conversed as if they were either good friends or _family._ Though them being family would explain a bit. The strength, the black eyes, and ridiculous hair… but not the puking.

Oh well, that's two out of three, so it was certainly a possibility. Shinsou narrowed his eyes as he watched the two interact, adding two and two together and coming out with five.

Izuku turned his glare towards Shinsou, unable to voice his outrage at his thoughts, instead settling for a furious expression.

Choosing to ignore his not-son's barely contained fury, Toshinori stepped forward with a hand extended, "oh, I'm sorry. Hello, you're Shinsou, right?"

"Yes, that's me… oh my god, this is so cool…" Shinsou's eyes went wide as he shook the hand of the number one hero, his brain bending and nearly snapping under the weight of what was happening.

He had never expected to actually _meet_ the number one hero, even though he knew he would be his teacher, he never thought he would say one word to him outside of the classroom.

"You broke him." Izuku rolled his eyes, making sure to over exaggerate the movement just to really make a point, even though he couldn't be seen by anyone other than Inko. And it wasn't like she was really paying attention. Her focus was directed elsewhere. "Thanks a lot, my first friend in years and you go and break him."

Toshinori politely bowed to Izuku's mother, blushing under her level stare that he almost wanted to qualify as a _leer._ Why was this happening to him, he didn't want this. Trying to will away his blush, he took a careful step back, keeping himself out of groping range, just in case.

He had been in situations similar to this before, he didn't want to take any chances, no matter how nice someone looked.

"Why are you so sarcastic all the time," Toshinori asked, looking over his shoulder for a moment before turning back to Inko, trying not to express fear in front of the tiny woman.

"..." Izuku said nothing, instead, he only upped the intensity of his glare, idly wondering if he could cause radiation burns if he didn't have his sunglasses on.

"I know you're glaring at me," Toshinori said, not even needing to turn back, able to feel the heat of the boys mock fury. He was sure it was just psychological, but part of him wondered if he was being melted by radiation.

Radiation and rage and teenage angst.

"What, are you a mindreader, now," Izuku grumbled, finally unrolling the magazines, the cheap ink of Conspiracy staining his fingertips and the high gloss of The Lone Gunman reflecting the light in soft lines.

Toshinori politely thanked Inko and apologized for the intrusion before heading back to the window, swinging one leg over the sill. He pointed to the two teenagers, Shinsou staring at him in a daze and Izuku fumbling with his copy of Conspiracy. "So, I'll see the two of you tomorrow then!"

Izuku waved with one hand, engrossed in an article about irradiated gold and a political plot from Sealand, "yeah, yeah. Bye! See you tomorrow," he said, his words growing quieter and turning into mumbling as he turned the pages of Conspiracy.

"Oh my god…" Shinsou nearly swayed on his feet as the reality of the situation caught up to him. "...bye?"

"Nice seeing you, All Might," Inko said, watching the hero very closely as he exited the window, smirking slightly as she waved goodbye. _Hate to see him go, but love to watch him leave._

"Inko, no." Izuku just shook his head in disappointment at his mother's thoughts, turning the next page with ink smeared fingers. "Gross."

* * *

Izuku watched Shinsou as he swayed on his feet, staring out the window that All Might had vanished through. "Inko, I'm going to go walk Shinsou to the train station before he passes out." Izuku tapped on Shinsou's shoulder before gently nudging him towards the door, Shinsou nearly tripping over his feet as he moved.

Inko nodded, heading back to the table and picking up dirty bowls as she did, heading into the kitchen with her arms full. "Alright, but you and I are having a talk when you get back!" She popped her head back out of the kitchen, a stack of plastic containers filled with extra katsudon. "Oh, hold on, give him this, I made too much!"

"Right, yeah," Izuku nodded, taking the stack from his mother and giving them to Shinsou.

Once his two day supply of leftovers was safely zipped up in his backpack, Shinsou put his shoes and uniform jacket back on mechanically, his mind still reeling. He followed Midoriya out the door and down the stairs, steps a few seconds out of sync and nearly a full foot behind. In a daze, he asked, "so, does this happen often?"

"Inko cooking?" Izuku joked, purposefully pretending to misinterpret Shinsou's question. "Yeah, just once a week." He kept a wary eye on the cat across the street, the animal not having moved even a centimeter for the entire time they had been inside.

Shinsou rolled his eyes so hard he was half worried they might fall out of his face. "Not your mom's cooking, I mean, it's really good, but, well," it hadn't exactly been the highlight of the evening. Shinsou watched Midoriya's face carefully, well, as much as he could see that wasn't concealed by the black sunglasses. He really wanted an answer for what had happened in that apartment, and preferably a truthful one, but he wasn't sure he could take it right now. Maybe later would be okay. "Does All Might come in through your window with an issue of Conspiracy very often?"

"Ehh, sometimes." After a pause, Izuku continued, his voice oddly level for the situation. "More than you would think. Inko's not usually there, but that was kind of normal for me." Izuku grinned lopsidedly and shrugged with his good arm. "Usually we just meet at his agency or wherever I decide to surprise him."

"You're crazy," Shinsou shook his head, deciding to save the rest of his questions for a later day. He was just mentally drained, but he was certain he would sleep like a rock tonight.

"Wait a minute," Izuku muttered, his eyes going wide behind his sunglasses. "You know Conspiracy?" He tugged on Shinsou's sleeve, "you read Conspiracy?!"

Shinsou snorted at Midoriya's enthusiasm, nodding to acknowledge bis question. "Yeah, I have a subscription. And to Off the Record."

"Ah," Izuku laughed sheepishly, not sure why he felt embarrassed about what he was about to say. "I get mine from a newsstand run by an ex-yakuza that I buy with untraceable Kronor."

"Oh, keeping it on the down low with foreign currency, huh?"

"Exactly," Izuku said, excitement creeping into his tone as he realized he now knew someone who understood the importance of discretion. "Do you do cash or a prepaid anonymous credit card?" He paused for a second before adding, "or do you go old school and use a big jar of spare change?"

"You'd like to know, wouldn't you," Shinsou asked, feigning suspicion before cracking a small smile. _Oh my god, he reads Conspiracy, Off the Record AND The Lone Gunman?_ Shinsou almost wanted to skip with glee. _Perfect friend material! Maybe, best friends?_

Izuku ducked his head, hiding his face in the darkening shadows. People had just been thinking such nice things about him the entire day and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to deal with it. Flattery made him fearful.

The two fell into a comfortable quiet, passing crowds of commuters on their way home from work.

The closer they got to the train station, the more Izuku's paranoia began to perk up, searching for something to grab onto and blow out of proportion. And sure enough, it found something.

"You're not… not going to ask _why_ All Might climbed in through the window," Izuku asked worriedly, knowing he wouldn't be able to lie about it.

"No, I don't think my brain can take it." Shinou chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "I'm more shocked that you know All Might personally!"

All Might was that untouchable ideal, the perfect hero, and here was Midoriya, this twitching paranoid boy and somehow, _somehow,_ the two were connected.

"Yeah, my life is really…" Izuku frowned, searching for a word that best explained his life these days. "Insane? Intense?"

Intense barely began to cover it, but that was the best he could do at the moment. Scary, weird, unpredictable, those all just fell flat in the face of what his life was really like. Words couldn't properly describe every facet of his life.

Shinsou nodded, one more question on his mind. "Are you really over four hundred pounds," he asked, trying to keep from laughing as he asked the question and barely succeeding.

"What, are you saying I look fat," Izuku shot back, a small smile twisting his lip. "I think you heard how I feel about being told that."

Shinsu snorted, _as if I could miss that._ He shook his head, shoulders shaking with restrained laughter. "How do you, heh, how do you not fall through the floor?"

"Altered density housing." Izuku had been the one to track the apartment down after all, and it was specifically for its construction and the fact that it was in an area with a low crime rate and low hero patrols. "That's why it's so much shorter than the other buildings."

"Huh, I always wondered about that sort of thing." Where do people live if they can't fit into buildings, or they need to be in water at all times, or those whose bodies are just clouds of vapors? For some reason schools nearly always glossed over those issues caused by quirks. And speaking of quirks, Shinsou didn't watch Midoriya this time, knowing his question would likely set the twitchy boy on edge. "Your quirk, it's more than you're sharing, isn't it?"

"I-" Izuku nearly stumbled over nothing, turning away from Shinsou and hiding his face in his own shoulder. He shook his head, watching his feet as he walked. "Please don't."

Shinsou swore he could feel his heart stop in his chest. This reaction was nothing like what he had been expecting. He raised one hand, reaching for Midoriya's shoulder but he couldn't bring himself to let it land. "Midoriya, I wouldn't-

Izuku kept his focus on the ground, voice quiet and weak as he spoke, "I know you have questions, so many questions." He looked up slightly, glancing to where Shinsou's hand hovered over his shoulder. "I know that you look at me and you see a mystery, but I'm not a mystery." Izuku shrugged, admitting his fear with words that left a sour metallic taste in his mouth as they left. "I'm just scared. I'm scared of everything."

"I'm even scared of you," he said with a scoff, shaking his head and kicking at the sidewalk as he walked.

Shinsou tilted his head, not quite understanding, but also understanding perfectly what he meant. "But with your quirk…?" _Nothing can hurt you, so why are you still afraid?_

Izuku waved away Shinsou's words with his good hand, "I know you would never be able to hurt me, really. I can run much faster than you can imagine, but even just making _friends_ fills me with irrational terror."

"I know what you mean," Shinsou said after a heartbeat, his hand finally reaching its destination and he squeezed Midoriya's shoulder before pulling his hand back. "Never knowing if you can trust someone not to lash out in their fear." He had some experience with that.

"Don't worry about it, I won't pry."

"Tha, thank you," Izuku's voice sounds dry and raspy, almost as if he had been crying. "Thank you, Shinsou." He wiped at his eternally dry eyes, sniffing slightly.

The two stood outside the train station in silence for a moment as Izuku began to compose himself. The crowds are thinner than they had been hours ago, the sound of the wind somehow amplifying the quiet and the hum of fluorescent lights cut through the footsteps and wind.

Shinsou finally broke the silence, scuffing the sole of his shoe on the ground. "Well, this has been a weird time. A fun time too, I really enjoyed it, but it's still too weird." He looked to Midoriya with a hopeful and expecting grin. "So let's do this again next week?"

Izuku chuckled and nodded, his good hand gripping the strap of his sling tightly. "Oh, yeah."

"Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow, Midoriya." Shinsou turned towards the station, waving as he took a step away and back towards his own home.

"See you, Shinsou." Izuku nodded awkwardly, not sure how he was supposed to act. "Have a good ride home."

"Mhm." Shinsou turned back once more, a genuine smile brightening up his face. "Really though, thanks, Midoriya."

Izuku waved back in reply, a crooked and shaky smile breaking across his face when he realized both he and Shinsou were thinking the exact same thing.

 _A friend. Oh my god, I made a friend._

* * *

He can't sleep. He's far too excited, his modified adrenaline coursing through his veins, preparing him for whatever was coming.

Too bad it wasn't coming for another three hours.

Izuku rolled over onto his side, watching the clock that hung on his bedroom wall, the loud _tik-toc_ of the second hand nearly deafening in the silence of the apartment. He groaned and rolled over to face the wall, covering his head with his pillow in a futile attempt to stop the noise and keep him from seeing his surroundings.

The _tik-toc_ of the clock grew louder, each second seeming to take an hour. Exasperated, Izuku sat up and threw his covers back, his good hand tugging at his hair in frustration.

All he wanted was to get some damn sleep, but he hadn't managed to sleep for even a second after he had come back from walking Shinsou down to the train station. He was usually asleep right now, getting into his first two hours of the night. But by now it was painfully obvious he wasn't even going to get two out of his typical three hours. If he was lucky he _might_ get an hour. Izuku swung his legs over the side of his bed, socked feet setting down on the freezing hardwood floor.

He sighed loudly, rolling his shoulders back and cringing when he heard a _crunch_ and felt the vibrations from his artificial cartilage grinding against itself. Placing his good hand over his heart, he tried to count the beats, rolling his eyes when he realized it was pointless. His heartrate was the same as it was every night, sixty-four beats per minute, even if it felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest and run circles around him before exploding into a bloody mess that would take weeks to clean up.

Pushing himself up onto his feet, Izuku stumbled, one foot catching on his ankle and he landed on the floor with a dull _thud_ that shook the floor of nearly the entire apartment. "Fuck," he hissed, grabbing the edge of his desk and pulling himself back to his feet with no small effort. "Ow," he whispered flatly, rubbing his now bruised knee.

Well, if he had been tired before, he wasn't anymore.

He grabbed his blanket, draping it over himself as he shuffled out of his room and down the hallway, he needed coffee and he needed it _now._ Working by the light of microwave timer, Izuku poured himself a lukewarm coffee, filling a metal thermos to the brim before he screwed the lid on tight as he shambled into the living room.

He set his thermos onto the coffee table, drips of coffee rolling down the side and staining the table, the dark ring joining dozens of others in the same area. Izuku all but flopped down onto the couch, the reinforced frame of the couch creaking under his weight. He leaned back and closed his eyes, sinking into the overly plush couch cushions.

Izuku suppressed a shudder and covered his eyes with his arm, trying to relax his muscles and calm the excitement that was threatening to send him crashing through the walls. Staring through his eyelids and through his arm, Izuku watched the apartment buildings rooftop, wondering if he could get an hour of sleep in if he went out for a run and got back before the sun came up.

Not even needing to move his arm away from his eyes, Izuku checked the clock on the wall before him. It was only 1:47, he should have plenty of time to squeeze in some extra sleep if he just took a walk instead of going for a full run.

At the very least he could get an extra twenty minutes, and when every second counted, those minutes could make a world of difference.

Izuku pushed himself to his feet, leaving his blanket on the couch behind him as he picked up his thermos of coffee and headed to the front door to grab his shoes. But before he could bend down to put them on, he just leaned against the wall heavily, unable to muster the willpower to actually follow through on his idea. He couldn't convince his feet to move towards the door, even as he jammed his feet into his ratty shoes, he still couldn't do it.

Part of him just knew that taking a walk wouldn't help, but he knew one thing which would.

A slight smile on his face, he turned back to the couch to grab his blanket, looping it around his neck before walking over to the window. As he passed the kitchen table he picked up his reusable grocery bag and tucked it under his sling, the coffee safely wrapped within.

Carefully, Izuku opened the window, trying to make as little noise as possible as he swung one leg over the sill and onto the scant edge outside. Bracing himself on the frame with his injured arm, he grabbed onto the dented drainpipe with the other, pulling himself up with more difficulty than he would ever admit to.

What he was planning always helped to calm his mind.

Once on the rooftop, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and neck and looked out on his little sanctuary.

His secret garden, his own personal rooftop Eden. If Eden was shoddily constructed with cinder blocks and two-by-fours and all the dirt was stolen handful by handful out of strangers yards and back alleys. And everything was mildly irradiated.

So sure, why not, it was Eden.

Izuku set down his bag and pulled out hs coffee, sitting down on his poorly built bench that matched the cinderblock and two-by-fours around it. He looked out on the city from behind the rows of plants and he felt a sense of ease wash over him as the loud roar of thoughts from the apartment building faded into the dull mumbling of the entire city block and the three surrounding it in every direction. It was the closest he could get to peace.

Without his sunglasses limiting his vision, he looked out on the overlapping layers of concrete and steel, glass and wood, and so many people. Most of them asleep, but Izuku could see others still awake, the insomniacs, the night owls, the night time workers, heroes, and criminals. The city was never as interesting as it was at night, at least in Izuku's opinion.

The greys on lighter greys on darker greys, and all the lights, it was magical.

He sipped at his coffee, the metal radiating its heat into his hands as he stared up at the night sky, watching grey clouds float across the inky black of the night and the glittering points of white light. Izuku set his coffee down beside him and stood, walking along the rows of plants, trying to see what was ready for harvesting. He kneeled down beside a planter box full of onions and carrots, planted in two rows that could never be considered straight lines, and Izuku tugged experimentally on a carrot.

The carrot didn't move, stuck fast in the soil. "Oh, that's really in there, isn't it," Izuku mused before yanking the carrot from the soil with more force than necessary and put it into the bag, dirt and all. "And that's gonna be lunch," he said, smugly, reaching for the next carrot. The next few minutes were spent pulling up carrots and onions, five of each and putting them in the bag with the rest.

His breath had calmed and Izuku stood back up, brushing the knees of his pajama pants off before turning to the rows of bell peppers and celery when he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Someone was watching him.

Whirring around, he spotted a shadowy shape on the rooftop of the building across the street. Izuku narrowed his eyes, searching for anything that could help him identify the figure.

 _Is that…? It is. What on earth is Midoriya doing awake right now? Whatever, this isn't my problem…. Is he holding an onion? Screw it, I'm going over there._

Izuku recognized those orderly and straightforward thoughts. He frowned, taking a step forward before jumping back when the figure seemed to swing over to his rooftop on long white strands. "Erase, um, Eraserhead," he stammered, nearly tripping himself as he took another step backward. "I mean, Aizawa-sensei?"

"Midoriya." Aizawa frowned, his capture tool settling back down onto his shoulders. He looked around the rooftop, taking in the poorly built planter boxes and bench. "What are you doing awake," he asked, concern lacing his tone.

"I'm always up around now," Izuku admitted, suddenly realizing he was still holding an onion in his hand. He held out his onion, offering it to the hero on impulse. "Oh, um, I… do you want an onion?"

 _What._ Aizawa took the offered onion, holding the vegetable gingerly before slipping it into one of his many hidden pockets. "Thank you?" The hero furrowed his eyebrows as he processed what Midoriya had said before he had given him the strangest gift he had been given in a long time. "What do you mean, you're usually awake by now?"

Izuku kept his gaze on his feet, certain that making Eraserhead puke on patrol would make him the worst sort of criminal. He shrugged with one shoulder, "just that, I don't sleep much."

"Hmm." Aizawa understood how it was having a hard time sleeping. He watched as the boy shuffled his feet, avoiding lifting his gaze. He pointed at Midoriya's sling, "how's your arm."

"It's alright," Izuku nodded, not lifting his gaze from his own feet. "It could have been a lot worse.

"Hmm," Aizawa frowned, "your quirk, why couldn't I erase it?" That question had been bothering him for nearly the entire day,

"It's not, not an emitter type, but at the same time, it is?" Izuku stuttered through his explanation, trying to weave a convincing lie. "It's sort of both emitter and mutant? Does that make sense?"

"I see," Aizawa looked at the boy's subdued posture, very different from how he had been during the assessment. There was no false bravado here, no manipulative behavior. If Aizawa didn't know better, he would say Midoriya was scared. "Your quirk makes people uncomfortable, doesn't it," he said, not a question, but a statement of fact.

"Y-yes," Izuku nodded, "most people are… scared of me."

"Hmph," Aizawa pushed his goggles up onto his forehead, looking over the boy in front of him. Tiny, wrapped in a blanket, hands covered in dirt, coffee on his breath and a bag full of onions. He blinked slowly, thankful he wasn't responsible for his students outside of school. "People are afraid of what they don't understand," he said, knowing from experience that that phrase never really made much of a difference. _I know what you mean, Midoriya._

"Get some sleep, kid, you're going to need it for tomorrow." _Have fun with your… onions._

Izuku watched as Eraserhead all but launched himself off the side of the building, capture tool flying ahead of him and looping around a streetlight. "Bye?"

Turning to watch as the hero moved in leaps and bounds before sinking into the shadows. Izuku shook his head, turning back to his garden, pale light creeping up over the horizon and illumination the plants by increments. "Well, alright then," he picked a bell pepper, putting it into the bag. "That was weird, wasn't it."


	10. Chapter 10

"Oh no," Izuku sat up when he felt the train slow to a stop and felt the movement of dozens of minds on and around the train car. He looked around in terror for a second before he relaxed, pulling the brim of his baseball cap down over his eyes. "Oh thank god, those kids aren't here yet."

Izuku sighed, settling back against the door and closing his eyes, readjusting his position to keep himself from moving with the motion of the train. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and bracing his feet on the guard railing. He adjusted his grip on his bag and let himself relax with the sound of the tracks and the swaying of the cars as the train began moving again.

For about fifteen minutes, he hovered on the edge of awake and snoozing, the only thing keeping him from falling onto the side of sleep was the bright rays of the sun that were slowly heating his body like a lizard basking in the sun.

Really, he _could_ fall asleep like this. The wind, soft as it was, in his hair, the lack of lasting or comprehensible thoughts around him as the train sped between the stations. It was nice.

 _Was_ , being the operative word as the train slowed to a stop at the next station.

"Hey!" The sound of many pairs of small hands slapping on glass jolted him back awake. "Hey, mister!"

 _Mister? Not this again._ Izukus eyes snap open and his breath comes too quick as he's nearly knocked flat with an avalanche of thoughts as soon as he sat up. He sagged against the door, blinking himself back to alertness.

 _It's him! UA!_

 _Why is he outside? Isn't it dangerous?_

 _Pay attention to us!_

 _I wonder if he met Tsuyu?_

 _That uniform is still so cool!_

 _How'd he hurt himself?_

"Mister! How's UA!" There was a flurry of knocking on the window, nearly a dozen tiny hands tapping on the hardened plastic. "Mister Midoriya, hey!" More tapping, mixed in with slapping and the rattling of the door as it was kicked. "It's me!"

"Damnit!" Izuku smacked his head back against the door, squeezing his eyes shut and hoping if he opened them again the tiny flock of children would be gone. He pulled himself to his feet, opening the door and entering the train car moments before the train began to move away from the station. "Heeeey, how are you, kids?"

"Midoriya?" Izuku's eyes went wide as he looked up at the expressionless face of his classmate. The girl cocked her head to the side, blinking slowly with nearly translucent eyelids. "You take this train?"

"H-hi, um, uh," Izuku wracked his mind for the girls' name, drawing a blank even as he was sure he had heard it before. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name," Izuku waved awkwardly from the middle of the mass of children pulling on his sleeves and backpack. He brushed the kids' hands away, pushing them towards the seats before sitting himself down across from the girl and her sister.

"It's Asui Tsuyu, call me Tsuyu, or just Tsu."

"Okay, Tsuyu?" Still uncomfortable, he pulled his backpack off and tucked it between his feet. "So, how are you?"

Tsuyu just blinked, her sister pulling on her sleeve beside her. "How does my sister know you?" She narrowed her eyes, watching the twitching teen suspiciously. _He some kind of weirdo?_

Behind Izuku's sunglasses, his eyes were wide as he raced to come up with a non-suspicious and not creepy answer. "Um, she's a… friend?" He cursed himself mentally as soon as the words had left his mouth, that sounded even _worse!_

 _That answers nothing and is even **more** suspicious._

"We're friends!?" Tsuyu's sister all but vibrated with excitement, trying and failing to shake Izuku's hand while still seated. "You can call me Satsuki!"

"Uhhh, okay?" Apparently being overly blunt was something that ran in the family. Izuku turned to Tsuyu, "I'm not a weirdo, your sister, and her friends just like harassing me."

"I see," Tsuyu said, her voice filled with doubt. But a quick glance to the side at the group of overly excited children trying to get Midoriya's attention cleared up the most of her worries. "Is your injury from the softball pitch?"

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, glancing away from the girls' inquisitive stare. "Yeah, I wanted to prove a point."

"I think you succeeded," Tsuyu added quietly.

Satsuki sat up, tapping on her chin with a finger, unconsciously mimicking her sisters' mannerisms. "Why would you hurt yourself?"

"To prove that I deserve to…" Izuku paused, not wanting to burden an innocent mind with his suffering. He cleared his throat, "it's something you're probably too young to understand."

"Probably, I'm only six," Satsuki said, holding up six fingers proudly. Lovering her hands, she beamed excitedly, "but I'm almost the top of my class." _Fourth. But he doesn't care._

"I remember being six," Izuku muttered, unable to prevent the jealousy over the fact that Satsuki seemed to be far more popular than he had at that age. But he shook that feeling off, it wasn't healthy to be jealous of a literal child less than half his age. "It was terrible," he finished weakly.

"Really," Tsuyu asked, cocking her head to the side. _With a quirk like that, such strength, how is that possible?_

"Hey, mister," one of the group asked, reaching over the seat and tugging on Izuku's sleeve. "When you're a hero, are you going to be cool like All Might?"

 _There's no way he can be as cool as All Might, All Might's the coolest!_

 _I want to go to UA, too!_

 _Why's his arm in a sling, did he get hurt at UA?_

"Hrh, I sure hope so." Izuku chuckled, even though he knew he would most likely be spending his days as a hero hiding behind the scenes and in the shadows. Someone like him should reach no higher than the Underground.

There was no way he could imagine how that could ever change.

Letting the conversations fade out, the others seeming to understand his lack of interest, he settled back in his seat, closing his eyes to try to get a few more moments of rest before the coming day.

* * *

Almost as soon as the train had begun to slow to a stop, Izuku had all but leapt from the train into the busy station, losing himself in the crowd to avoid the slowly waking thoughts of Bakugou, Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida.

The others had gotten on at different points and Izuku was thankful that they hadn't gone looking for him where he was trying to nap in the second to last car. It was too early and he was far to tired to interact socially with anyone.

Surprisingly, he had actually slept for an entire ten minutes, the hoard of children and the Asui sisters seeming to understand his need for rest, talking amongst themselves instead of to him.

But once he was off the train, he walked quickly, almost jogging, through the crowd towards the back security entrance of UA. He ducked down below the sightlines of the security cameras and the bored looking guard to all but crawl along the ground and under the gate until he was inside and on the grass.

It had been surprisingly easy, the gaps in campus security more worrying the more he saw. He really had to bring this to somebody, this was just pathetic. If a fifteen-year-old could sneak into UA without being seen, any criminal with a brain could do the same.

Especially considering how many villains were _just_ brains. Really, a concerning amount were just brains. Some floated, some shambled, some slithered about like- Izuku stopped, shaking himself to try and make himself drop the subject.

This was not the time or place for that. There was _no_ time or place for that.

He stayed low for a few more moments as he crawled, sticking to the wall until he found a cluster of bushes large enough to hide within. Adjusting his baseball cap and sunglasses, he stood, slinking towards the back entrance of the main building, running down his plans for the day.

He needed to get his arm fixed and get to class in under ten minutes without being seen, but he couldn't use the same route as before. Ducking his head, he kept going, hiding around corners and behind statues and pillars any time a person, whether they be student or staff member, came close to seeing him.

The only sounds he made were the sound of moving fabric, his breath and his footsteps, but as his heart raced with adrenaline, he swore he could hear the blood pumping through his veins. Continuing, he ducked below the windows set in the doors, pushing them open quickly and slipping inside before they could close on him. With his head down, he was almost completely anonymous within the throng of students filling the halls, talking about their free time and classes.

 _I still can't believe I'm in UA!_

A tall, Izuku figured he would call them _leggy_ , on account of the fact that they had more than the average number of legs, spoke excitedly though the sheet of blonde hair covering their face. "I heard that All Might is going to teach here, can you believe it?"

Their companion shrugged, the steely grey scales that covered their skin flexing on their neck and face when they answered. "Nah, that's just a rumor, he's way to busy teach here!" _But wouldn't that be something?_ "Sides, I don't think they could afford to pay him."

"I'm sure, I'm sure." _Really, he's cool enough he would do it for free, wouldn't he?_

Izuku ducked behind the duo as they passed, traveling through the gaps in the crowd they had left behind. Hundreds of minds continued to wash over him, thoughts slow and sluggish, waking steadily as moments passed, Izuku listening to all of it.

 _I'm gonna fuck this up, I just know it._

 _God, I hate this uniform, so itchy. Skirt feels like it's ripping my skin off with each step._

 _Calm down you got this calm down calm down calm down nothing to panic about calm down calm down calm down calm the fuck down already calm down this is fine_

 _Every day I'm here is the best day of my life!_

 _Ugh, someone here smells like tiger balm. Like, a lot of tiger balm. Ew._

 _I don't know anyone here, this is so uncomfortable. Oh no, what if they hate me?! What if they call me names!? What if one of the names is pisshead?!_

Izuku choked down a giggle, slipping behind a tall girl with a mass of flowing flowers cascading down her shoulders. He carefully opened the door to Recovery Girl's office, closing it and leaning heavily against it, closing his eyes and breathing heavily, tucking his chin into his chest as he tried to distance himself from the masses outside the door.

"Oh god, so many people," he whispered, looking up and nearly jumping out of his skin when he looked right into the expectant face of Recovery Girl, the retired heroine raising an eyebrow slightly at his nervous attitude. "Gyah!"

"Have a seat," Chiyo gestured towards the chair beside her desk, turning back to grab her can where it was leaned against her own chair. "Did you sleep enough last night?"

"No," Izuku admitted before continuing. "But I'm well rested."

"Ah, low quantity, high quality," Chiyo nodded, grabbing a bottle of hand sanitizer from the top drawer of her desk. She had seen plenty of that back in her heyday, heroes running themselves over the brink and into the ground, surviving on nothing but adrenalin and the absolute minimums of sleep and food.

"Exactly." Izuku nodded, setting his backpack at the end of the desk, unlooping his sling from over his shoulder. "I should be fine, no more tired than I usually am."

Recovery Girl took the sling in her hand gingerly, dropping it into the trashcan by her desk. "You smell like coffee, how much have you drank?"

"None yet, but I have… four travel mugs in my backpack." That wasn't all he had in his backpack, but he wasn't going to mention the eight ounces of whole coffee beans he had tucked away in the bottom. Really, that would just be embarrassing, nobody needed to know about how he would just eat whole coffee beans.

It really isn't something he was proud of and he always smelled like coffee because of it.

Izuku took a seat, dropping down the last six inches due to the chairs low height. He hadn't quite realized how tiny the nurse really was.

"Four? Really?" Chiyo raised an eyebrow imperceptibly before shrugging it off. She had expected him to have more than that based on smell alone. "Not sure why I'm surprised, you're not the first insomniac I've worked with."

"I'm not an insomniac, medicat-" Izuku gritted his teeth as he felt his muscles slither and slide under his skin and back into place, pulling tight over his bones once more. "Yowch! Hunghhhng…shit, that hurts!"

As he had meant to say, medication could help aid insomnia, and he had tried the medication. He had tried so _much_ medication and it had done nothing for him. Meditation, medication, hell, he had even tried sleep deprivation.

Nothing had worked to date, his body refused to shut down even though his mind would all but crash and burn.

"Quit your wiggling, you're fine." Chiyo flicked Midoriya in the forehead before helping him to his feet. She pressed a small bag of gummies into his hand as she ushered him to the door, nearly tripping the both of them with her cane as she did so.

Izuku turned to thank the retired heroine, "I really appreciate this, I'll try to keep myself in one piece for a few days." He would probably fail, but at least he would try. And that's all that really counts.

"You better." Chiyo made a shooting motion, barely keeping a smile from her face as she did. "Now go on, get on out of here, go to class."

Closing the door behind him, Izuku snorted at the last thing he heard.

 _That kid is going places. Mainly the hospital, but still going places._

 _And hopefully going to a shower, that kid smells like coffee and onions._

Izuku rolled his eyes as he left, wondering if he really smelled like onions.

* * *

Classes had gotten off to a good start, Izuku had looped around the entire building to evade notice. All but meshing into the wall before climbing up a drainpipe and in the window at the last possible second, startling over half the class in the process.

The only ones not surprised were Bakugou and a few of the students Izuku was sure had heightened senses of some sort. Too bad he didn't know their names yet.

But now... now it's going by so slowly Izuku is sure he will die of boredom before lunchtime. English with Present Mic drags on, and he's certain he's learned nothing from it. The same with Modern Literature with Cementoss. Mathematics with Ectoplasm. Art History with Midnight.

At least he _thinks_ it was Art History. There were far too many visuals for him to follow along for more than a minute at a time.

Izuku's just about ready to pull his own eyes out rather than sit through one more second of class, but after the bell for lunch rings, he forced himself to move slowly, packing his things away and putting his backpack under his desk. He took the paper bag of vegetables from his backpack, setting it on his desk for a moment while he grabbed a battered grey pencil case, at least he assumed it to be a grey case, full of his daily medications and he rezipped his backpack.

He stood, taking the bag of vegetables in one hand and his pencil case in the other, stretching his arms above his head while walking to the front of the classroom, his shoulders crunching as he did. He lowered his arms, rolling his shoulders back before he felt a hard shove at his shoulder. "Hey, freak, get out of my way," Bakugou snapped, shoving Izuku again, even though there was plenty of space to go around him.

"Muh, make me," Izuku said, pushing his sunglasses up before turning around to face Bakugou. His stutter was back with a vengeance, massacring his every word. But he didn't back down. He twitched, head jerking slightly to the side. Bakugou always seemed to bring out the worst in him. "Do it, jackass. Do it."

"You think I won't?" Bakugou glared, shoving a plastic bag at Izuku at the same time Izuku pushed the paper bag at him. _Here, consider this a peace offering._

"You don't have the guts," Izuku muttered, glaring behind his black lenses, straightening up to be closer to Bakugou's level even as he took the bag. He sniffed, blinking the sting out of his eyes. "Is this all hot peppers," he asked under his breath. "Thanks?"

 _Yes, all peppers._ Bakugou thought loudly before pretending to be offended by Izuku's statement. _God, this is hard. How do you have a conversation like this? I'm gonna look like a crazy person I dont-_

"Loser," Izuku said in as harsh a tone as he could, breaking the silence that was beginning to stretch to uncomfortable lengths. He knew exactly how he and Bakugou were supposed to talk, but he couldn't just say it in front of everyone.

"What! I don't, you," Bakugou just snarled, pushing past Izuku roughly, shoulder checking him as he did. He turned to flip Izuku off for good measure, "fuck you!" He tucked the paper bag of vegetables securely under his arm, giving Izuku a curt nod. _Thanks, freak, enjoy the peppers. Hate you._

"Fuck off," Izuku hissed back, lacking any real power or venom in his tone. It was almost a friendly 'fuck off,' if that could be a thing that happened.

Maybe he was the first one to use it.

"Oh my god, shut up you two!" Shinsou rolled his eyes, stepping to the side to give Bakugou space as the blonde passed him by at the front of the desks, the blond walking backwards towards the door and still flipping off Izuku as he did. "Seriously, stop antagonizing each other," Shinsou grumbled, pushing his hand through his hair.

He thought that they hated each other, just based on what he had seen of their interactions so far, but this right here seemed more like friendly banter than legitimate hatred. Shinsou might not know what was going on, but this isn't normal in the slightest. _Normal people don't growl at each other._

 _ **Furries** growl at each other, not people._

Izuku snorted, nearly choking himself over Shinsou's thoughts as he fell into step slightly behind the taller teen. The crowded halls parted slightly, in part to Shinsou's poisoned glare and in part to Izuku's aura of rolling fear and discomfort that seemed to infect all around him.

Shinsou watched curiously as the crowd parted, knowing his face wasn't _that_ scary. Was it? "So, how's the arm?"

Izuku lifted his arm, straightening his arm out in front of himself and making a slightly shaky fist before he pulled it back. He shook out the slight cramping in his fingers, tendons stiff from all the abuse they had taken in the past few days. "It's good, a little sore still, and I'm super tired."

"Is that why you drank so many things of coffee?" Shinsou hadn't _seen_ how much it had been, but he had heard and smelled it. About every hour the smell of coffee would fade only to come back stronger and with a vengeance after a few minutes of rustling from Izuku's backpack.

"It was only three, that's not that many." Sure, each cup _technically_ held two cups, but that _still_ wasn't a lot.

At least not to him.

Besides, he still had another cup in his backpack for before Foundational Hero Studies began.

 _And wouldn't that be a trip,_ Izuku mused, wondering how All Might would handle himself in a school environment.

His shoulders slowly tensed as he realized that All Might would have to work extremely hard to keep their prior communication and training a secret from the rest of the class. All Might wasn't exactly a convincing liar. And as for keeping secrets… well, even if Izuku couldn't read minds, he wouldn't really need to.

How was he going to keep this from the rest of the class?

The rest of the class aside from Shinsou, at least. And wasn't that weird, Izuku thought. Shinsou _knew_ that he and All Might already knew each other.

Could he trust Shinsou not to blab? They didn't know each other than well, did they? There was no trust yet, and what if Shinsou was a plant?

What if he had been sent by Blackbriar? Or Thorn Ridge! Or even The Institute!

"It is a lot. It's a whole lot." Shinsou answered, unaware of Izuku's rapidly spiraling thoughts. "You should drink less coffee."

"Or I could just die," Izuku answered, concern and paranoia still tinging his thoughts and feelings.

Shinsou drew his eyebrows together, not sure how that was supposed to work. "You won't die if you drink less coffee."

"I will. I will die if I even _think_ about drinking less coffee."

"You…" Shinsou shook his head, putting his concerns out of his mind. "Nevermind, not worth it."

* * *

"...what is that?" Izuku lifted his upper lip in disgust before lowering his sunglasses and staring at the questionable food before him. "Is that even real food?"

"It's roast chicken," Shinsou said uncertainly as he took a plate of seared salmon and steamed vegetables. "Are you blind or something?"

"..." Izuku readjusted his sunglasses before looking at Shinsou incredulously. Had he really forgotten? "Yes? I can't see color."

"Shit, right, sorry. I forgot that you can't see for shit." Shinsou shrugged. "If you can make people vomit with eye contact, you probably don't have normal vision."

The two moved down the line, pretending not to notice the way those around them gave them a wide berth.

"So, what did you give to explosion bitch?" Shinsou perked up, asking excitedly in a hushed whisper. "Is it a bomb, are you murdering him." He crossed the fingers of his free hand, the other holding his lunch in a shaking grip. "Please be a bomb, please be a bomb, please be a-"

Izuku shook his head, finally cutting Shinsou off in the middle of his mantra. "What? No." He picked up what he hoped was a juice box, not even knowing what sort of fruit, or fruits, it had been made from. "It's a bag of vegetables."

Shinsou deflated in disappointment, asking hopefully, "poison vegetables?"

"No!" Izuku rolled his eyes behind the black lenses as he picked up some sort of fruit cup from the end of the lunch selection. "Regular vegetables."

Shinsou rolled his eyes dramatically, sarcastically snipping, "are they at least radioactive?"

"..." Izuku turned his face away, cheeks burning.

"No way."

Izuku kept silent, his gaze flicking further to the side.

"No fucking way!" Shinsou ducked down to hiss his next question in Izuku's ear. "How in the hell are they radioactive?!" He gripped Izuku's sleeve tightly as they walked, eyes wide as he continued to whisper in Izuku's ear. "Did you get uranium from the guy who sells you Lone Gunman issues?"

Izuku shook Shinsou's hands off his sleeve, snorting out a laugh at Shinsou's shocked expression.

"No, Three doesn't sell radioactive gear to kids. I've tried. A lot." No uranium, no plutonium, no strontium, nothing. Izuku rolled his eyes, following Shinsou through the bustling cafeteria and to an empty, at least what he hoped was empty, table. "I give off a very low level of radiation, not dangerous, no more than the average person is exposed to from a single ct scan or an x-ray on a yearly basis." He screwed up his face in a frustrated scowl as he tried to run through the numbers.

He knew this, he could swear he knew this. He just couldn't make himself remember it.

With a shrug and irritated huffed, Izuku sat, immediately diving into his food. "less than three millisieverts annually."

"Is that a lot? It sounds like a lot." Shinsou wasn't sure how much radiation is a lot, but he was pretty sure more than none was too much. His eyes went wide with panic as he whisper shouted, "Oh my god, am I going to get cancer from you? Can you give people cancer? Oh god!"

A few people in the throng around them turned their way, curiosity piqued by the quiet outburst.

"Am I going to die?!"

Sitting up straighter, Izuku whipped his head around and glared back at them, raising his upper lip enough to show his teeth in a snarl, sending those who were watching them back to their own business.

"I'm not going to give you cancer." Izuku shrugged, trying his best to downplay how terrifying the reality of his existence sounded. "It's basically nothing."

He didn't need to try and read his mind, Izuku could tell by the silence that Shinsou didn't believe him. So Izuku continued, "one sievert only carries a five percent risk of cancer. You would have to hang around me for… uh," Izuku frowned, wracking his brain to try and figure out the math. "All day, every day for like, almost a million years."

He shrugged, picking at his meal. "At least I think. I'm super bad at math."

"That is not comforting at all." Shinsou took a deep breath and sighed, trying to make himself relax.

"Sorry," Izuku muttered, hanging his head.

"One more question." Shinsou settled in his seat, resting his chin in his hand. "The guy who was a yakuza is named Three?"

"It's actually Three Hundred, but I really don't want to know what that stands for." Izuku shook his head.

"Probably his body count. Or crimes." Shinsou's eyes were wide, wondering what kind of life Three Hundred could have lived.

Izuku threw his hands up, "I just said I didn't want to know!" He tried to avoid reading into the thoughts of Three Hundred, and those of everyone he came into contact with often. It was just rude to hear more than surface thoughts and idle ideas.

That and Three Hundred terrifies him almost as much as the cat across the street from his apartment.

And speaking of surface thoughts...

 _Oh, there's Midoriya and Shinsou. I'm sure they'll let us sit with them._

Izuku looked around to see Iida and Uraraka standing at the side of the table, lunch trays in hand. "Hey! Can we sit with you?"

"Sure," Izuku said, quickly pulling his pencil bag to the side, enough force behind the motion that he sent the bag skidding across the table and onto the floor where it burst with a rattle and thudding of his multitude of pill bottles. "Oh dammit."

He stood, crouching down and grabbing loose bottles, glancing through the plastic to check which one was which as he stowed them away.

Iron and calcium supplements.

Antacids.

Pain killers.

Antianxiety.

Immunosuppressants and anti rejection medications.

PrednisOne. He really hated that one. The upset stomach and rise in blood pressure were barely worth it.

Izuku zipped the bag closed and he chuckled nervously as he once again took his seat, turning his face to his shoulder with the effort he was putting into avoiding the concerned eyes of those near him.

"That's a lotta pills, Midoriya," Shinsou said flatly, raising an eyebrow. He had seen the dozens of bottles in the other teen's bathroom, but hadn't thought that he had more that he kept with him.

"Uh, yup." Izuku brushed down his pants, trying to force his heartbeat to slow back down. "Yep yep." He nodded, trying to stop the sweat from dripping down his face. "Lotta, uh, lotta pills." Izuku wiped the sweat from his palms onto his thighs. His fucked up new human body needs a lot of maintenance, but he never thought that anyone would ever know about it.

The uncomfortable silence stretched on as Izuku fiddled nervously with the zipper on the pencil case before he gave up and began sorting out the dosages he needed.

Two prednisone, half a dose of his immunosuppressants, three hydrocodone for the constant agony of the metal and ceramics under his muscles and so on until he had almost a palmful of pills. He downed them with a long draw from his juice box, cringing when he realized it was grape.

He hated grape.

"Blegh."

"Soooo," Shinsou drawled, drawing out the word to unnatural lengths to drown out the suffocating silence. "We all ride the same train in?"

Uraraka nodded, wondering where this was going. "Yeah?"

"Yes," Iida said, eyebrows drawing together. "Why?"

"Did you see that guy who was wearing a pair of pants as a cape?"

All but slamming her hands onto the table, Uraraka sat up, eyes comically wide. "Wait, you saw him too?!"

"There was a guy wearing pants as a cape?" Izuku raised his eyebrows before asking, "so, did he have a second pair of pants on?"

Shinsou shrugged, "I think so?"

"No, no he didn't," Uraraka answered. She had seen too much too early in the morning.

"What." Izuku just stared, wondering how the hell he had missed a guy walking around with no pants. Had getting a little extra sleep been worth missing out on _that?_

"Yeah, he was wearing a, uh," Uraraka gestured vaguely. "A pair of leggings?" She shrugged, "Or maybe it was a pair of tights."

"I think it was tights," Iida added. Whatever it had been, it had been far too see-through and one of the most uncomfortable experiences of his life. "Too thin to be leggings."

Uraraka hit back with, "Or maybe they were really long socks."

"Bodypaint," Shinsou asked, sparking a round of laughter.

As the others laughed over the man wearing pants as a cape, Izuku could only ask to himself; "what the hell did I miss when I was sleeping?"

* * *

Toshinori wrung his hands anxiously, pacing outside the door of the classroom. He wasn't ready for this. His only notes were written on a notecard in his pocket and half of the ink was smudged across his sweaty palms.

He wiped his hands on his cape, the dark blue fabric the only place sweat stains and ink smudges wouldn't show.

 _I'm so nervous. Haven't done this in a long time. But god, I've missed this. I'm shaking! I'm actually fucking shaking!_

Taking a moment to breathe deeply, the hero affixed his famous grin, preparing for his big entrance.

"It's ME!" Toshinori all but launched himself through the doorway, door slamming against the wall so hard he was certain it would leave cracks. "Through the door, just like a normal person!"

The classroom all but exploded in a cacophony of sound and fury, the room almost shaking from the energy pressing against the walls.

"OH MY FUCKING SHIT!"

"IT'S ALL MIGHT!"

"HOLY HELL!"

"Whoever said never meet your heroes needs to be shot because this is fucking awesome!"

 _All Might is here, holy hell oh my god oh my god oh my god ohhh_

 _AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa_

 _I could die right now and be happy for all eternity!_

"Look at that costume!" Someone shouted, "it's so retro I'm gonna die!" _That color blocking, that silhouette! Cape is shit, but I can't even care right now!_

Izuku whipped his head around, trying to find who dared think such things about All Mights cape. That cape, an absolutely exquisite shade of deep blue, if his faded memories of color served him right. He hunched down in his seat, arms crossed and shoulders almost up to his ears while All Might was… flexing on the desk.

Izuku had seen weirder things than that, unfortunately. And besides, the cape was too good for this crowd anyway.

Unfortunately, All Might didn't seem to realize it with the way his thoughts ran. _Oh my god, I don't know what I'm doing._

Izuku, on the other hand, knew exactly what everyone thought. The excitement, the… he could only describe it as _joy,_ the way every kid wants to meet their heroes times a million.

 _They actually got All Might! I don't know why I doubted it, but holy hell!_

 _AAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaAAAA_

 _Can I ask him to sign stuff for me, is that weird? That's weird, right? It's totally weird._

 _I knew he was coming, but I'm still amazed! He's the greatest!_

Above the frenzied and heated thoughts of the riled up class, came an irritated… Izuku could only describe it as being a mental eye roll and a, _Fucking Drama Queen,_ from an exhausted Eraserhead. Somehow, Izuku could feel the capitalization of each word.

 _I hope he has a fucking lesson planned out, I didn't sleep at all last night. Hand still smells like onion, too._

Izuku rested his chin on his hand, watching Eraserhead from behind the black plastic of his sunglasses. All Might was still on the desk, announcing his lesson plan and holding a card that Izuku could only assume read "death battle" based on how extreme the reactions of the class were. Talking over the rabble, All Might explained, "the trial of battle, one of the key components of hero work! And to go with this training…" Toshinori gestured to the wall, the racks of boxed uniforms slowly extending.

"Your new uniforms!" He waved the students to shelves, nodding slightly when Midoriya stepped past him, the kids face blank as he did so. "Now, get changed and met me at BattleGround B." As the students swarmed towards the door, clutching the boxes close, he added, "and don't forget, from here on out, you're all officially heroes in training!"

Lingering behind the crowd, Midoriya turned back, throwing a slight thumbs up and a crooked grin in his direction before slipping back into the storm of students.

The classroom, now empty aside from himself and Eraserhead, Toshinori took a deep breath, deflating slightly, both figuratively and literally.

"Good going, blond wonder. Getting them all riled up," Aizawa rolled his eyes, hands deep in his pockets as he ambled out the door, followed by a cloud of black coffee. "Now I get to calm them all back down," he grumbled, hiding a smirk in the loops of his capture tool.

He was having more fun hazing All Might than he had expected. The overly upbeat hero was just so easily affected by everything Aizawa said, so he just _had_ to roll with it.

Unfortunately, he didn't realize just how much his little game could sting.

Alone in the empty classroom, Toshinori hung his head with a quiet exhale of held breath. Now he knew, he _really_ wasn't ready for any of this.

* * *

Izuku set the heavy case on the locker room bench, slowly unbuttoning his jacket and shirt with one hand while he opened the locker in front of him with the other. Hanging his shirt and jacket, he kicked off his shoes, leaving them on the floor.

It wasn't like anyone would try to steal them. Izuku took a slow breath, exhaling through his nose. Careful not to destroy his pants in the process, he worked open his belt, freezing when he felt someone stop behind him.

"Hey, why you still wearing that shirt?"

Izuku whipped around, staring into the blank face of… he didn't actually know their name. Their face was… saying _average_ felt mean, Izuku knew just how insulting that could be. But they had an air of excitability about them, and with their spiked up hair, Izuku was reminded of an overly energetic dog for some reason he didn't quite understand. "Huh?"

"You were wearing one like it yesterday, too." The other teen rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyebrows drawing together. "Doesn't it get hot, wearing long sleeves all the time?"

Izuku blinked, processing what he was asked. Right, people here all cared. Cared a lot, based on what Izuku had experienced so far. He shrugged, going back to undoing his pants. "It's not too bad," he said, looking past the other to see Bakugou roll his eyes.

 _Everyone wants to be friends with the freak now. Fuck off, and quit reading my mind, freak._

"I don't have a problem with heat," Izuku said. The constant pain from his jerry-rigged skeletal system made heat and cold a non-issue. That and he always ran hot these days, the constant adrenaline in his veins made him more susceptible to cold than heat.

"Oh, cool." The teen, who one-day Izuku would come to know as Kaminari Denki, nodded thoughtfully, thoughts tinged with a shadow of jealousy. "If it's too hot, I have a harder time using my quirk. Not sure why."

"It's from heat resistance, numbnuts," Bakugou spoke up from behind them. "Heating an electrical conductor makes it harder for the current to flow. Simple shit."

Kaminari turned away from Izuku, watching Bakugou for a reaction. "Huh. Didn't really take you for the intelligent type."

Bakugou bristled, standing a little straighter as he all but growled. "What's that supposed to mean, hah?" He tried to take a step forward but was stopped by the fact that he had strewn his clothes and uniform around himself. Instead of trying to move, he just slapped his palm on his chest, "come at me!"

"It means you're more the sort to spend your free time reading that which caters to the absolutely lowest common denominators of society." Kaminari shrugged, wracking his often scrambled brain for an example. "Gossip magazines and 'How to Bully Better,' that sort of thing." _Bullying for Dummies,_ Kaminari thought. _I'm sure that's something._

Izuku blinked twice, turning away from the escalating exchange. Stripped down to just his underclothes, he carefully took off his sunglasses, his eyes shut as he tried to get used to the sudden expansion of his vision. He placed the sunglasses in the locker, closing it and turning back to the box containing his uniform.

He took a breath to try and calm the excitement in his veins. This was really happening, this was really _real._ Izuku undid the latches, slowly opening the box.

He had sent in the paperwork for his uniform, requesting heavy and strong materials and minimal tech. Nomex with Kevlar reinforcement. High impact ceramics in the gloves and boots. Lightweight titanium bracing along all the joints and long lines of the uniform. He just hoped it was what he had asked for.

He hadn't really been specific.

He couldn't see it, but he really wanted it to look as he had described. Something proper for an underground hero. Dull colors, and urban camouflage. Grey, green, browns and blacks. No gadgets, no tech, no weapons.

Well, aside from his pager, seven smoke bombs, ten feet of rope, a few zip ties and strips of metal.

The first thing he picked up was a heavy motorcycle helmet, twin points giving the helmet a sleek futuristic look. He turned the helmet over in his hands, looking into the solid black visor. He lifted the visor, lowering it again and repeated the action a few times. Smooth, no resistance or friction.

Very nice.

He set the helmet aside, moving on to the next item. He unfolded a stab-proof shirt, vertically striped in black with two wide stripes on either side in what he hoped was either green or grey.

It was green, not that he could tell.

He pulled the shirt on, adjusting how it fit over his other set of sleeves. He rolled his shoulders back a few times before he zipped the shirt up, a set of dual snaps on the top and bottom of the zipper and he was done.

A Nomex vest in a mottled green and grey with two steel colored lines on the sides, the fabric inside their shape padded to protect his ribs. He clipped the three leather straps across his chest and went back to the box.

A set of gauntlets, mostly metal and kevlar with high impact ceramics on the knuckles. To protect his hands when he needed to punch through walls and such. Grey and black with white palms of heavily ridged rubber.

Next came a pair of heavy steel-toed tactical boots. What he couldn't see was the color, a mud-brown with black soles and toecap, black laces and reinforcement.

He set the boots aside, taking out a pair of fatigues, made with more pockets than were necessary. A slate grey colored the reinforcement on the knees, and the rest of the material was a green and concrete grey urban camouflage. Digital, of course. This wasn't the 1900's.

Pulling the fatigues on, he buckled his belt, twisting side to side before readjusting it to fit a little looser. The belt was also mud brown with a black buckle, helping pull the color aesthetic together, but it wasn't like Izuku could appreciate the work the belt was doing.

"Hey, Midoriya!"

"Nyarh!" Izuku whipped around, eye wide. "O-oh, Shinsou," he quickly averted his gaze, staring at his own feet instead of his friend's face. "Sorry, I'll try not to look at you."

"Thanks, I prefer not vomiting." Shinsou gestured down to himself with a flourish of his wrist. "What do you think?"

Izuku looked up slightly, squinting as he tried to decipher the color. "Is that black or purple?" He narrowed his eyes a little more. "Or grey?"

"It's a color," Shinsou said, unhelpfully.

"Purple?"

 _"And_ black."

"Two colors?" Izuku rolled his eyes. "Cheating."

Colors aside, Shinsou had on some simple padded leather body armor and a set of tech-laden fingerless gauntlets wrapped around his arms io to the elbow. A display on the inside of his wrist showed the power level of the device and its structural integrity. 98 and 100 percent, respectively.

Izuku tried not to pry, but Shinsou's pride was basically screaming what the gauntlets could do.

Holy hell. Izuku's eyes went wide. So they could collect energy from his own movement and surrounding sounds to create a minor shockwave or soundblast.

Was that even something he needed? That anyone needed?

"Looks... good," Izuku said slowly, eyeing the tach heavy gauntlets. He wasn't sure if he was jealous or afraid of them, but mostly he was just glad his friend had something to give himself more power. "Even though it's dark it's," he hummed, nodding as he spoke. "Very exciting."

It brought to mind action sequences in dark alleyways, violence and drama backlit by dull streetlights and coated in smoke.

Whereas Izuku...

"You look… very bland." Shinsou drew his eyebrows together, trying to put together a comparison. He snapped his fingers, eyes sparkling with realization. "Like a super nasty mud puddle and the color beige had a big beige baby."

Izuku grinned widely at Shinsou, his eyes focused somewhere over his shoulder as he did so. "Thanks!"

"That wasn't a compliment."

"I'm going to take it as one, anyway." Looking away from Shinsou's face, Izuku pointed at the heavy mass the other wore around his neck. "Is that a rope? Are you using it as a capture tool?"

"Yeah, like Eraserhead has." Shinsou didn't bother to correct Izuku, he was basically right, anyway. It might not be a rope, but it had all the flexibility of one and only half the weight. "I couldn't find a real one. What about you?"

"I asked Inko for tips on my uniform," Izuku began, gesturing down to the Nomex vest and fatigues. "She suggested the stripes and the," he tapped on the points on the back of his helmet. "The points."

Shinsou snorted, shaking his head as he laced up his boots. "It looks sort of like a terrifying grunge goth green all might parody." I love it. "Why?"

"Something about my roots, or something." Izuku actually remembered exactly what Inko had said; _You always wanted to be like All Might, and he's a big part of your life now, I just think, I know you don't have to listen to me, but I just think it would be nice if you had a homage to your roots._

Talking about his costume with Inko. It had been nice.

Someone, Izuku couldn't tell who, their shirt was over their head, asked, "who's Inko?"

"His mom," Bakugou said, rolling his eyes at the looks of surprise he got from knowing anything about the boy he acted like he hated.

"You call your mom by her name?"

Another boy, Izuku really needed to learn names, asked, "that's weird, right?"

"Yeah, it's weird." Shinsou zipped up his padded vest, smoothing the leather over his chest. "His family is weird." He shrugged, clipping the leather arm braces on over his fingerless gauntlets, adding an extra layer of protection. "I just chose leather because it's utilitarian and prevents people from biting you." Double denim would also have worked, but there was no way in hell Shinsou would go running about the city and lurking in dark alleyways dressed like a depressed and sleep-deprived Best Jeanist.

"...Not weird," Izuku mumbled, distracting himself with the laces on his boots. He was weird, he knew that much, but Inko wasn't weird. Still working on the knots, he hummed slightly as he tried to get them even. This was always the hard part for him.

When he looked up from his struggle, everyone was gone. He tripped over the heavy metal in his steel-toed boots, stumbling a bit and nearly smashing his knee into the bench. "Hey! Wait up!"

"Come on!" He rocketed through the hallway and towards the light. "You guys!"

* * *

 _I hope Midoriya doesn't miss my announcements, even though he'd still hear it. I just want him to be here in person._

"Shit shit shit shit shit," Izuku chanted, careening around the corner of the halls in the observation building, trying to find where the rest of the class had gone. Why the hell are there so many hallways in an empty building?!

 _Where the hell is Midoriya? Is he still in the locker room? He's going to miss the explanation!_

"Fuuuuuck!" Izuku came running down the hall, panting as he skidded through the door, his momentum carrying him into Shinsou's back, sending the two of them sprawling forward. As Izuku fell, his foot hooked behind the leg of the person beside him, catching Uraraka in the wave of chaos, the three tumbling to the floor.

A moment of silence fell over the room, broken by a snort and cackle of laughter from Bakugou. Slowly, the rest of the room bubbled up in laughter and giggles, punctuated with mocking applause and false praise.

"What an entrance!"

"Well, I don't know about all of you, but _I'm_ impressed."

"Smooth move, so smooth!"

"He so smooth they call him butter!"

"Damn, dude!" "Absolute hero status!"

"I think he killed them." "Oh yeah, super dead."

"Someone call the coroner."

Shinsou tried to push himself up only to fail, his face still smashed against the bare concrete floor. "Get. Off. Me." He reached behind himself with the arm that wasn't crushed underneath him, blindly slapping at the weight crushing him.

"I can't!" Uraraka dodged a weak slap from Shinsou, trying to push back against the massive weight of Midoriya. She thought about using her quirk to remove the weight crushing her lungs, but when she tried to reach up, only one hand was free, and she was busy using that to stop Shinsou from smacking her. "Midoriya, you're killing us!"

"Sorry, uh, suh- sorry." Izuku slowly crushing his two friends to near flatness before he rolled off of them, climbing to his feet and brushing himself down, he reached down and pulled Shinsou and Uraraka both to their feet, ducking his head at the glares he received from them both. "Sorry, I tripped over the bench, then into the wall, then over the door jam, then over a trashcan and-

"What, how." Uraraka stared in awe at the twitchy mess that stood in front of her, somehow wringing his hat in his hands even though his hands were empty and he didn't have a hat. "You only have two feet, how did you trip that much?"

Shinsou rubbed at his ribs, knowing he was going to be a mess of mottled black and blue in the next hour. If he had know making friends would be so painful, he wouldn't have made any effort. "Talent, you haven't seen half of his shit yet." He had seen nothing so far, and that was still too much. There was no way he could take All Might seriously after he had seen him climb through a fucking window during dinner.

He shook his head, sighing, then immediately gripping his ribs in pain. "Midoriya is a madness magnet." _One hundred percent nonsense._

"Right, you two are…" Uraraka gestured vaguely between the two, prompting a snicker from Shinsou. "Something." _Are they friends? How did they make friends so quickly? Am I… jealous?_

Toshinori raised an eyebrow, clearing his throat to draw attention back to him. "Well, now that you've all gotten that out of your system, let's get back to the task at hand."

"S-sorry," Izuku mumbled, hanging his head down and ducking down to retrieve his dropped helmet from where he had dropped it. He stared down at the heavy plastic and metal framework within as All Might continued.

Izuku clenched his jaw, face burning in frustration as he stared down at the helmet in his hands. God, this was embarrassing. He hadn't wanted to make any sort of impact, he wanted to hide in anonymity, not make a fool of himself in front of the entire class and All Might.

What the hell had he been thinking? He hadn't been paying attention, and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

"Midoriya!" A tugging at his sleeve distracted him for a moment, but he brushed it off and went back to his self-hating spiral.

"Midoriya! Are you even listening?"

Izuku raised and lowered the visor of his helmet, brow furrowing. Did he really want anonymity, though? The averageness, the disconnection from society and essentially being a drifter for the rest of his life? Never knowing anyone, and no one ever truly knowing him?

He wanted, _needed,_ companionship. Being a nobody couldn't ever give him that.

"Midoriya!" His name was accompanied by a hard kick in the shin, knocking him out of his trance. "You missed All Might picking out teams."

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, watching Shinsou's roll his eyes over how long it had taken to get his attention. He quickly looked away from his friend's face, gazing somewhere above his shoulder. "Teams?"

Shinsou nodded, "yeah, you and Sunshine are a team."

"Sunshine?" Izuku blinked, slowly drawing the connection. "You mean Uraraka?"

"Yep, teammates!" Uraraka stepped up, hands clasped over her chest, a slight bounce in her step. Izuku almost turned his entire face away from the brightness of her smile. "We're going first! Up against team, uh," she glanced back to the front of the room to the lineup on the computer screen. "D?"

"Iida and Bakugou? I think." Shinsou shrugged, watching the rest of the class pair off into their respective teams. "Don't care." _My teammate is a genius!_

Only paying attention to what Uraraka was saying, Izuku shook his head. He was going to have to fight Bakugou? He pressed his hand over his eyes until his vision was clouded in foggy grey. "Oh. Oh no."

"Yeah, _I'm_ partnered with Yaoyorozu. We're going against team G." Shinsou turned and grinned smarmily at his new partner. He waved, wiggling each finger independently of the others. "Heeeey!"

Yaoyorozu waved back stiffly, smiling back at her new partner. This should be fun.

She didn't know anything about her teammate, his quirk, or the quirks of the team they were up against, but this should be fun.

She had no idea what she was getting into.

* * *

The two teams were getting into position, Uraraka and Midoriya preparing themselves outside, while inside, Iida and Bakugou tried to do the same.

"I know it's just practice," Iida said quietly, running a gauntleted hand over the fake bomb. "But the idea of being a villain turns my stomach." He patted the bomb, turning away to look over the rest of the room. "But we just have to defend this, yes?" Iida stepped around the fake bomb, tapping his knuckles against the paper mache, trying to get a feel for the weight of the construct. Just in case he needed to move it.

Bakugou ignored the question, not looking at Iida as he adjusted his collar. "Oi, speed demon."

Had he forgotten his name already? Really, Iida wouldn't doubt it, not with the way Bakugou seemed to care about only two things; himself and insulting Midoriya at every turn.

"It's Iida," he corrected, turning to face his partner in crime. Well, partner in fake crime.

"Whatever." Tightening his mask, Bakugou stretched his arms above his head as he paced around the room. "I know you probably want to be on the lookout for space case and her gravity fuckery, but you need to keep an eye on the freak. He's the dangerous one in that duo."

"What?" Iida blinked, trying to put together the nicknames his teammate seemed deadset on assigning to everyone. "Space- do you mean Uraraka?" He _hoped_ that was who he meant, it did make the most sense, after all.

"The freak can get in your head and read every fucking thought in there." Bakugou hissed, he hated what he was doing. He and Midoriya had some kind of trust, an unspoken bond that had morphed into an unbreakable tie between them. "I don't like sharing anyone's secrets, but there is no fucking way in hell I'm losing to that screwup."

They had the bond of eternal rivals or something. Whatever, he wasn't a fucking poet. He was just a kid, with some weird bond he couldn't quite describe.

Deep in his chest, he felt as if he was betraying that bond. Bakugou crossed his arms over his chest for a moment, trying to push that feeling away before the chill set in. He shook his head, glancing back from the corner of his eye. "Just try not to think too much and he won't be able to find you."

"Wait." Iida froze, his arm shooting up as he grabbed Bakugou by the shoulder before he could walk away. "What exactly are you trying to tell me?"

"Can't you read between the lines, speed freak?" Bakugou didn't turn around, but his hackles raised as he glared down at the hand that dared to encroach on his personal space. "Trying to say something without saying it," he said as he shrugged the hand off of him, slapping it aggressively as it got too close to his own before it could be drawn back. Somehow still calm, he continued, snapping his fingers as he reached what he was searching for, tiny sparks flying from his fingers. "Uh, what's the word, insinuate!"

Part of him was thankful that he had been given the distraction from the creeping cold in his chest.

Iida drew his hand back, rubbing the knuckles where Bakugou had slapped him. Was that really necessary? "Are you _insinuating_ that Midoriya can somehow read minds?" He blinked, quickly adding up what he knew about the secretive green-haired teen so far. "As if he has more than two quirks?"

"Hell, you're slow for a speed demon." Bakugou rolled his eyes, hands jammed deep into his costumes pockets as he stalked out of the room with the fake bomb. The cold in his chest had lessened, but it was still there, hardening when he said; "he's a fucking freak, nothing surprises me about him anymore. Stay here, I'm going hunting."

"I'm not just going to stay here! Oh, he's..." Iida just stared out the door at Bakugou, looking down into the empty eyes of his helmet for some kind of answer. "...we don't even have a plan."

* * *

Out in front of the building, the other two were doing the same, but really, it was the exact opposite. Working together and planning ahead the best they could.

Izuku was crouched down, eyes closed in his focus. He took a long, slow, breath, trying to find his inner balance.

Uraraka stood beside him, wringing her hands anxiously. "I don't think I'm ready for this?" She sighed, crouching next to Midoriya, the heels of her boots sinking until they were flat to the rest of the sole. "Are you okay?"

"Bakugou… tch." Izuku shook his head, eyes closed as he listened to Bakugou talk about him as if he didn't know he could hear each word as he said or thought about it.

He lowered the visor on his helmet, blinking as he adjusted his vision to the effects of the black plastic. "Uh, Uraraka?"

"Yeah?"

He hesitated a second too long, flinching when a soft hand patted his shoulder. But he kept himself from shaking the hand off, instead still staring up at the nearly empty building, listening as Bakugou tried to convince himself he was fine. "Can I tell you something?"

Really, he was fine.

He had to be fine.

In the long pause between his sentences, Uraraka spoke up, prompting him not so subtly. "What is it?"

"I don't like having to tell anyone anything about myself." Izuku muttered the next words, "don't really like sharing at all, but…" He cleared his throat, looking up from where he was hanging his head. "I can't let Bakugou get a leg up on us because I refuse to share."

Uraraka tilted her head quizzically, eyebrows slightly furrowed. _I wonder where he's going with this..._

"I don't just have superior strength, I can also," Izuku gritted his teeth, steeling himself for the backlash he knew was coming.

It was an inevitability.

He exhaled shakily, "I can hear things that people don't want others to hear." He turned his face away, cringing. "I don't think I can make myself tell you anything more, but," Izuku sighed, looking up at his partner from behind the black plastic, gaze darting to the side a moment later.

"Just… trust me?" The word _please_ went unsaid, but it didn't need to be said, it was still heard as clear as a bell.

 _Does he mean mindreading?_ Uraraka furrowed her eyebrows when Midoriya nodded curtly. Even with the black plastic covering his face, she could tell he was avoiding her gaze. He was all but leaning away from her at this point, waiting for a strike of some sort. Physical, mental, emotional, Uraraka didn't know what he was waiting for, only that it wouldn't be coming.

Uraraka felt as if the ground was falling away from underneath her feet, her heart freezing in her chest. "You're… you're a telepath," she asked in a whisper, a chill running up her spine.

"Nuh, not really," he muttered, quiet enough he knew he wouldn't be heard. But he still nodded as he spoke, his unconscious betraying his need for secrecy. "It's only one way." He hung his head, biting his lip. Was he a coward for not wanting to share the one secret he knew could make anyone out there in the big world despise him?

 _I know why you don't go around sharing that._

"People don't like mind readers."

"People don't like mind readers."

The two said the phrase at the same time, one voice filled with an old anguish laced with unhealed hatred, the other with regret and exhaustion. Far too similar than either would ever expect.

Behind the visor, Izuku's eyes went wide in surprise. "Huh?"

"I had a cousin that used to say that." Uraraka swallowed around the heavy feeling in her throat. "They don't say much anymore."

She hadn't thought about this in years. The family didn't really encourage it, either. It was sort of the little secret that was all too common where they lived.

Violent crimes against those who could read minds were all too frequent in areas with lower income and industrial based employment.

Oh. _Oh._ Izuku nodded once. He understood perfectly. Crimes against those with mental based quirks were less common than they used to be, but they had a sort of… acceptance.

It was understandable to attack someone that knew your secrets. Society didn't see anything wrong with it.

Nobody likes mind readers.

Uraraka sniffed, blinking to clear her eyes of the stinging behind them. _I guess having a quirk that makes people sick is still better than being a mind reader to most people. I can't imagine how he does it._

Izuku stayed quiet, tilting his head as he waited for her to finish her thought.

"Can't cry, have to hear all the nonsense people are thinking?" Uraraka felt that she maybe understood why Midoriya had lashed out when she had pitied him for not being able to cry. He didn't want pity, didn't want fancy words or empty actions. Only acceptance and understanding.

He only wanted what everybody wanted. Uraraka wiped her eyes again, smiling weakly. "that's a hell of a secret to keep. A burden."

Izuku's jaw dropped, he had never, _never,_ had someone actually _understand_ the fact that he felt his powers were a burden. And that living with his powers wasn't something extraordinary.

He didn't exactly _share_ his secrets, but still. This had never happened before.

At least, not until he had come to this place and let people into his life. He bit his lip to try and stop the trembling, damning his need to care for and befriend others.

Damning his dry eyes.

"...why are you telling me this now?"

With a sigh, Izuku stood, offering Uraraka his hand to help her to her feet. Shoulders hunched in on himself, he jerked his chin up towards where he saw his rival stand behind layers of concrete and steel latticework. "Because Bakugou knows, and he's trying to work around it." He closed his eyes, trying to shake off his worries. "He doesn't think I would tell anyone else."

"Your life sounds…" she trailed off, not even sure of what sort of word she was looking for. The tension between them broken and a blank slate ahead of them, Uraraka was able to push herself back into an upbeat attitude. "Alright, how are we going to beat them?"

"I thought you would never ask." He needed the distraction right now. Izuku rolled his shoulders back, still slightly hunched in on himself. He pointed up to where he saw Bakugou stalking through the halls, and Iida was… cleaning? He just mentally pushed that to the side, continuing on with what he was trying to say. "They don't have a shared plan, Bakugou is…" Izuku narrowed his eyes, listening a little closer to his rival's thoughts, "hoping the lack of a plan can work to keep us confused."

But of course it wouldn't be Bakugou without plain violence, and his thoughts showed it. A need to prove he was better drove him to such lengths. Lengths that Izuku was all too familiar with.

"But he's going to go after me like a demon from hell, and I need you to trust me when I say I can handle him."

 _You can handle him? What does that even mean?_ "You two have… history?" Uraraka frowned, trying to figure out if that was what she meant. "Is that the right word?"

"That's a word." Izuku couldn't stop himself from speaking now, it was as if a dam was broken. Words just came pouring out. "We just have a _lot_ of differences and unresolved nonsense."

"You sort of," Uraraka drew her eyebrows together in confusion, "sound like you admire him?" Was it possible that Midoriya actually admired the short tempered jerk that was all anyone had seen so far?

Izuku nodded, then shrugged one shoulder. "Oh I do, but I also hate him." He gestured to the door, stepping forward when his mental countdown dropped to thirty.

 _Huh?_

As they walked, Izuku talked, regretting saying anything, knowing that this conversation would need to be seen through to the end eventually. Not all at once, or even in one day, but he wanted to get as much of it out of the way in the next ten seconds. "He and his lackeys made my life a living hell until I was twelve years old."

Gesturing vaguely, he continued, avoiding details. "Even when I… ended up with a quirk, they still talked down to me, saying my quirk was only suited for a villain."

But that admiration… he wasn't sure if it would ever fade, it was too deeply ingrained into his childhood. Even when he had been bullied, beat down, trod upon, treated as nothing, he still looked up to Bakugou. Even though he knew he shouldn't.

"Hold on." Izuku raised a hand, closing his fist. He gazed up at the building, watching the movement within. Bakugou was heading down the stairs, and Iida… what the hell was he doing? "Iida is trying to come up with a plan on his own." Izuku tilted his head to the side as he listened, then he shrugged, "it's not _great,_ but it's still a plan."

He pivoted on his heel, stopping just outside the door. "The weight limit of your quirk is over a ton, right?"

"Yeah?" Uraraka watched Midoriya closely, her thoughts tinged with confusion. _I wasn't thinking about my quirk, that really isn't telepathy._ "Why?"

"Anytime you can find rubble, lift it and bring it with you, because we're going to need to split up, and Iida has completely cleaned out the bomb room."

"He _cleaned_ it?" Uraraka snorted, "ha ha! What?!" She covered her mouth, snickering uncontrollably as she followed Midoriya into the shadow of the building and around the side to the least conspicuous window.

"I just hope you're reading all of this right."

"So do I," Izuku muttered as he grabbed ahold of the drainpipe. A light tap on his shoulder, and he was weightless, Uraraka immediately understanding what she needed to do to help them get in. As he climbed, Izuku shook his head, wondering how on earth communication could sometimes be so easy. At least, it seemed easy compared to the rest of his life.

He was still mulling it over, he hadn't even gotten to the thought that maybe his communication skills were so terrible because of his mother, when he reached the window.

Closed and locked.

Izuku cursed softly, grabbing ahold of the windowsill before reaching for one of the pouches on his belt. He pulled out a thin strip of metal and slid it under the window, bracing his feet against the wall as he realized they were now above his head from the tiny amount of force he had put behind it.

He heard snickering below him, and he scowled down as he finally pushed the latch back on the window and was able to raise it. Izuku slung his legs over the windowsill, making sure he was secure before he leaned back and let himself hang down with one arm extended to grab his partner's hand. The other hand was grasping the drainpipe behind him to the point the pipe would require replacement in the immediate future.

Eyes wide in surprise at Midoriya's flexibility, Uraraka grabbed hold of his wrist, and he carefully took hers, slowly pulling her up as he executed a tricky situp maneuver of his own, only flailing for a moment as he let go of the drainpipe and grabbed back onto the windowsill, denting the wood for the second time. Once again stable, he slipped his legs fully inside and dragged Uraraka inside with him, the two knocking into each other and nearly sending Izuku flying.

Carefully stepping away from the wall he nearly became too familiar with, he nodded for Uraraka to release her quirk, and gravity reclaimed its grasp on him, his feet planted firmly on the floor.

"Operation Stealthy Infiltration was a success," Uraraka said in an excited whisper as she watched Midoriya check around the corner. "Just how heavy are you? Because I've lifted people before, and you are way heavier than normal people."

Izuku rolled his eyes and waved away the question, checking around the corner again. "Let's be careful, there's a lot of blind corners in this place."

"Wow, you sound like some kind of professional." _Talking about blind corners, and lockpicking? Can scale a drainpipe? That's so cool!_

"I have a very… devoted... teacher." Izuku stepped lightly, the creaking of the new leather from his boots the only indication he was even moving.

Uraraka followed quietly, taking slow steps to keep the sound of her boots spring-loaded heels quiet. The two walked in silence before she asked, "do you smell that?"

"No?" Izuku couldn't smell much from behind the visor and he wasn't going to raise it and risk making his partner sick. "What it is?"

Uraraka took a breath, trying to catch the scent in the air. It was acrid and stung her nose. "It smells like smoke." She breathed in deeply, eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure it out. "It's almost… sweet?"

Izuku sniffed, lifting his visor and sniffing again. There was definitely smoke in the air, he just couldn't tell where it was coming from. He tried to listen in on Bakugou's thoughts, only to be met with a chant of _don't think, just do, don't think just do, don't think just do, don't think just do._

"Let's be careful, this has Bakugou written all over it."

* * *

Izuku coughed, waving the sudden wall of acrid smoke away from his face. It had just come out of nowhere, a dense cloud of smoke blocking the entire hallway from both ends.

He lowered his visor and sealed the helmet, cutting himself off from the smoke.

Anyone with normal vision would have been blinded, unable to see more than a foot in front of themselves, but Izuku could handle this. He turned, trying to locate Bakugou in the smoke. Before he froze.

He could handle this... But his partner… Uraraka didn't even have a helmet that sealed completely! That was just decorative plastic!

Izuku heard a cough and turned back, worry grasping at his chest. "Uraraka?" He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her back from where they had come, the smoke cloud drifting after their retreat sluggishly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so." She coughed again, clearing her throat. "Where the hell did that all come from?"

"I think this is what Bakugou had planned, I can't really get a read on him. Wait, hold on." Izuku took a breath and stepped back into the cloud of smoke, watching for movement within.

This had to be Bakugou. It just _had_ to be.

Bakugou was smart, smart enough to mask his thoughts behind a wall of noise. But he couldn't hide from Izuku's piercing search.

The rolling cloud of smoke seemed to thicken as Izuku slowly passed through it, watching for movement the deeper into the smoke he went.

 _There._

Blinking behind black plastic, Izuku ducked a grasping hand that cut through the smoke from around the corner, stepping back to avoid a scything kick towards his visor.

A cluster of explosions launched the smoke-shrouded figure of his rival forward and towards him, an unstoppable force right on target. Izuku yelped and made a decision.

Fight or flight.

Fight or Flight.

Fight?

Fight.

Izuku braced himself for the pain he knew was coming and slammed himself down to the floor in a race to beat gravity, his back colliding with the concrete and radiating waves of pain through his entire body. _Thank the stars for nerve damage,_ he thought sarcastically as the pain quickly faded back to its normal ache in the span of a few heartbeats.

As the figure of Bakugou soared over him, Izuku kicked both his legs straight up into his stomach, redirecting his trajectory into the ceiling.

"You bastard!" Bakugou howled as he dropped down to the floor, rolling to his feet, spitting up a mouthful of rubble and blood. "How did you see me?!"

 _Fucking shit, he must have read my mind and heard me coming!_ He snarled, explosions crackling across his palm, "I'm not going down that easy!"

 _I thought I had myself covered!_

"What's happening in there?" Uraraka coughed into her hand, wishing she had thought to include a mask with her costume. She doubted this would be her only encounter with smoke. "Midoriya? Are you okay?"

"Yeh, yeah!" Izuku flinched with how his voice reverberated inside the helmet, but he kept his volume up to be heard. "It's just Bakugou!"

"Hey!" Bakugou leapt forward, aiming a punch through the smoke. "I'm not _just_ Bakugou! I'm a fucking star!" He coughed, the punch missing by a mile from the smoke in his eyes. He coughed, the smoke finally getting to him.

Uraraka stepped forward, immediately blinded by the thick haze. She stepped back immediately, not exactly wanting to get punched out of nowhere. "I can't see either of you!"

"Stay out of the smoke, I'll keep Bakugou busy until the cloud begins to clear!"

"You can't keep me busy because I'm going to fucking kill you," Bakugou shouted back, a cluster of explosions ringing through the hall, echoing off the walls. "Hold still and die, freak!"

"I think killing him is going to keep you pretty busy," Uraraka mumbled, coughing into her fist as she tried to watch for any sort of movement. But the smoke was too thick to pierce.

"Go!"

Clusters of explosions lit up random areas of the cloud, then the sound of a loud slapping or clapping sound cut a swath of clear space in the smoke. A space Uraraka quickly took advantage of, yelping as she ducked a black boot that could be from either of them.

 _I'm on my way, Midoriya,_ she thought loudly while she ran. She stayed low as she fled, scooping up handfuls of gravel and twisted metal as she went.

She and Izuku had a plan to pull together.

* * *

Deep within the smoke, Bakugou and Izuku were caught in a tangle of limbs, Bakugou constantly on the offensive while Izuku tried to twist away and make a run for it.

"Stop holding back!" Bakugou snarled at his reflection in Izukus visor, gripping the lapels of his rivals vest and shaking him. Flecks of blood sprayed across the twisted reflection of his snarl, and he slammed Izuku's helmet into the ground, denting the concrete once. Twice. Three times.

The flecks of concrete sprayed up and cut his face, fresh blood dripping down his cheeks and onto the front of his uniform. Izuku tried to push back Bakugou, but he could already see the bruises forming on his rivals upper arms. He immediately pulled back, letting Bakugou attempt to maul him.

But Bakugou was immune to the stinging pain in this arm, and Izuku's passivity just enraged him more. He pressed his palm flat against the visor and let off a cluster of tiny explosions. "Fight me like you mean it!"

"I won't!" Izuku finally shoved Bakugou off of him, scrambling to his feet and stepping back, hands raised defensively as he watched him warily through his cracked visor. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"You've been holding back for so long," Bakugou muttered, cracking his knuckles loudly as he stalked through the thinning smoke. For each step forward he took, Izuku took two back, the two of them locked in an awkward shuffle step. "You're going to give me what I want."

 _What I deserve. Vindication. Proof I'm your equal._

Izuku's eyes went wide. He didn't want to fight Bakugou. He took a step back, watching for an opening to get past Bakugou.

He had _never_ wanted to fight him.

Fight or Flight?

He raised his fists and watched as a deranged grin spread across Bakugou's face and his guard slipped for just a moment.

This time, he chose flight. Really, he always seemed to choose flight, sometimes it would just take him a while to get going.

Nearly sprinting down the hall, Izuku careened around the closest corner, trying to follow the mental map he had made of the building. Another right, then left, then the staircase should be right there.

Right?

"Get back here you fucking bastard!"

Where were the stairs?! He couldn't make this work without stairs!

He stooped down as he ran and ripped a section of paneling from the wall near the floor where it wouldn't be noticed. Nearly bouncing off the wall, he skidded to a stop in at the top of the stairs. He turned back to see Bakugou separated from him by only two walls.

He had to act fast.

Pulling on the handrail, Izuku tested its strength before he pulled himself up to stand on it, digging his fingers into the walls, the panels warping as he reached the ceiling. Taking a series of slow and shallow breaths, he watched as Bakugou staled into the hallway and ever closer to where he was hiding.

"Where are you, freak…" Bakugou muttered, sniffing the air like a bloodhound. He was certain he could smell a trail of fear. He narrowed his eyes, smirking when he saw the hallway become the entrance to the stairwell.

Izuku threw the panels tucked under his arm down the staircase, an echoing clatter resounding from where they landed and slid down the stairs. At least halfway down to the first floor from the sound of it.

"Oh, there you are…" Bakugou chuckled, approaching the stairs slowly before he started down them. "Thought you could hide, did you?"

His hands shaking, Izuku slowly crept back down to the floor, the sounds of his boots creaking covered up by Bakugou's chuckling and stomping steps. Reaching for his belt pouch, Izuku pulled out the length of capture tape he had been given, watching Bakugou descend the stairs as he planned his attack.

Those gauntlets were a problem, and a dangerous one. He had to do this fast and keep Bakugou from sweating.

 _Where did that freak get to, I swear I heard him go down here._

Izuku looped the capture tape around his hands and launched himself forward, knocking Bakugou against the wall as he caught the tape around his neck.

Snarling, Bakugou tried to push himself off the wall, explosions propelling his attempted escape as Izuku let out more slack in the tape and wrapped it around Bakugou's neck again. "You bastard! You tricked me you twisted fucking freak!"

"I'm sorry, I don't want to fight you," Izuku called out, tightening the tape around his rival's throat.

Bakugou screamed a wordless howl, trying to twist around to blast Izuku in the face until Izuku slammed his own knee into the back of his, sending him to the ground. "Mother fucker," he screeched, his right arm being wrenched behind his back and wrapped up in the capture tape.

Izuku pulled Bakugou's arm down and tied it to his back before he grabbed his other wrist, massive explosions missing him by mere centimeters as he turned his rivals palm away from himself. "I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you," he said quietly, wrapping the tape around Bakugou's wrist.

"What, so you're just going to rip my arm off then?" Bakugou tried to wrench his arm free, but the capture tape cut into his throat, choking him slightly. He immediately relaxed his arms, coughing into his shoulder. "Ow!"

 _The hell, when did he get so good at tying people up. Fucking freak._

"Sorry."

Bakugou jerked his head back, trying to hit Izuku with the back of his head. "Stop apologizing you fuckstick!" He felt a presence between his legs and shouted, "what the fuck are you doing down there?!"

"Making sure you can't wiggle free," Izuku said, tying Bakugou's legs and his ankles together before connecting the end of the tape to the tape around to his wrists.

Bakugou tried to take a step only to fall over on his side, "did you fucking hogtie me! I'm not a rodeo animal!" He squirmed and rolled onto his side, hissing and spitting at Izuku like a cornered rat. "Don't you walk away from me!"

"I'm so sorry," Izuku whispered, standing up and backing away. He took a few more steps back before he turned away, shame and regret casting a shadow over him as he ran back up the stairs.

Bakugou fell silent for a moment, his words carrying up the staircase and right into Izuku's soul. "...Why won't you give me this, just face me like an equal for one in my life!"

Izuku crouched down around the corner, guilt burning his face when he looked back to where he had left his rival tied up and alone in a stairwell filled with smoke. "I'm sorry," he whispered, hands curled into fists against the floor as he tried to stop the trembling in his fingers.

"You mother fucker, get back here!" A collection of increasingly powerful explosions rocked the building, smoke billowing up the stairs and filling the entire building's top floors. "GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!"

He shook his head, wishing he could cut off the increasingly violent thoughts of Bakugou, and stood, turning and hurrying away up the stairs to the top floor. As soon as he was clear of the screams and cursing, Izuku pulled off his helmet and drew in a deep breath, coughing slightly.

Quietly, he spoke into the microphone of the short-range transmitter, "come in, come in. Uraraka, I'm on my way. ETA three minutes." He pulled his helmet back on, lifting his visor and checking through the walls for where Uraraka and Iida were.

 _"Ten-Four, over and out."_

"Huh?"

 _"You get it!"_

"How 'bout we go radio silent until we meet at your twenty. Read me?"

 _"This is so fun!"_ Uraraka giggled down the line before she went quiet. _"Huh. Do I hear screaming?"_

* * *

With an armful of rubble, Uraraka was there to greet her partner. But when she saw him, she nearly dropped her entire armload. in shock "Hey, did you take care of, holy shit, what happened to your helmet?" Uraraka froze in place, looking at the nearly smashed plastic of the visor. A spiderweb of cracks covered in blood.

"Bakugou," was all Izuku said, crouching down against the wall to catch his breath.

"Are you okay," Uraraka whispered urgently, worry creeping into her voice. "Is that blood on your visor!?"

"Also Bakugou."

Uraraka looked down the hall at the thin tendrils of smoke crawling towards them. "Uh, where is Bakugou?"

Izuku sighed, pulling off his helmet. He rolled his shoulders back, neck and back cracking as he did. Training with All Might had certainly helped, but no training could ever prepare him for what he had just done. "Tied up on the first-floor stairwell."

"Brutal." Uraraka avoided looking into her partner's eyes, pointing down the hall towards the staircase. "Is that where the smoke is coming from? And the screaming?"

Izuku nodded once, "yes." He took a deep breath and stood, turning to face the room Iida and the missile were holed up in. Reaching into his belt pouch, he found the strip of metal from before and immediately set about scratching a rough map into the wall. "Now, the missile is by the window, and Iida seems pretty determined to protect it." Izuku closed his eyes, listening closely. "He doesn't know Bakugou is down yet."

Uraraka nodded, eyes serious. "So we have an edge on him."

The only sign that Izuku even heard his partners input was a slow blink and long exhale of breath. He closed his eyes, formulating a rough plan. "I'm going to have to go through the wall. Or the window."

"What…" Uraraka sighed, not wanting to know the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Why?"

"Element of surprise," he answered. "You'll have…" Izuku glanced to the cluster of junk Uraraka was holding in her arms, at least thirty pounds of scrap. He nodded and continued, "a massive cloud of rubble, so you're going to be the frontal assault. Iida won't expect an offensive with your quirk."

 _Tch, he'll think it's weak. Useless. Just like everyone else._ Uraraka rolled her eyes at her thoughts, and she sighed. "Right, you have super strength, so he'll expect you." She brightened up as soon as she realized what Midoriya was implying. "Am I throwing rubble at him?"

"Yes." Izuku snorted, he hoped it would be more _dropping_ it on him, but who was he to critique someone else's strategy?

Uraraka bounced on her heels, excitedly cheering, dropping rubble as she did. "Hooray!"

Izuku reached out without looking, pressing his hand over her mouth. "Shhh."

Muffled, Uraraka cheered again. _"Hoogarathy!"_

Rolling his eyes, Izuku turned his attention back to his directive. He had to focus.

 _I must cloak myself in darkness made from human sin!_

Uraraka peeled Midoriya's hand away from her face, dropping it along with a few pieces of her rubble. She crouched down to pick it back up and asked, "what's with that look on your face?"

Izuku leaned his forehead against the wall, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "I… What is happening in there?" It was weird and confusing and he couldn't look away from what he saw. Iida posing melodramatically and laughing maniacally like an exaggerated supervillain from a child's cartoon.

"What?" Uraraka cocked her head to the side, curiosity piqued. "What is it?"

 _I am now… quite evil._

"I honestly don't know. I think he's trying to… well. You'll see." Izuku sighed, wiping off his visor before pulling his helmet back on and heading towards the window. He adjusted his gauntlets, cracking his knuckles and tapping his fingers on the windowpane. Turning back, he nodded to his partner and gestured to the space filled with pillars. "Get in there and I'll come in while he's distracted."

"Got it." Uraraka nodded back and collected the last few pieces of her pile of rubble in her arms. She stepped forward, hiding behind pillars as she approached. With each step she floated another piece of rubble, keeping it close to her chest until she peeked around the last pillar.

As she watched Iida pose dramatically and laugh, she gently tossed pieces of floating rubble towards the ceiling, casting a wide net of concrete, metal, and glass. _Okay, Uraraka, we can do this. It's just like lifting a girder. But lots of them. And tiny._

Unaware he was being watched, Iida spun on his heel, arms spread wide as he tried to get into character. "BWA-haha! Villainy! Evil! These are the things I love!" He lifted a clenched fist, shaking it at the ceiling menacingly. He laughed cockily, "I'm the greatest supervillain of all time!"

He said it quite unconvincingly, if I may add.

"Hah! He's so honest, it's adorable!" Uraraka slapped her hands over her mouth, eyes squeezed shut as if not being able to see would make her unseen. _Oh shit, he heard me!_

Iida turned to the source of the outburst, dropping character for only a second. "Huh?" He cleared his throat, trying to shake off his queasy sense of nervousness.

He was a villain, not a scared student!

Quickly and before it could be seen, Uraraka tossed the rest of the rubble upwards, some of the larger pieces clattering loudly against the others. She stepped forward with a wince, clutching the pillar to support her shaking knees. "Uh, hi…"

"So, you've made it to my lair, little hero!" Iida gestured grandly, mimicking the behavior of the villains he had seen on the news and in the movies. "I knew you would come here once my comrade went after your partner."

 _He's not breaking character! It's so good!_ Uraraka wanted to clap for the performance, but instead, she smiled shakily, taking a step back from Iida's menacing advance.

"Your quirk can float anything you touch yes? But it is useless in here, how can you float things if there is nothing to touch!" Iida gestured behind himself to the nearly empty room, the floor and walls all but sparkling in their blankness. "I've removed anything you could use as a weapon!"

"It sure looks… neat and tidy?" Uraraka stepped to the side, raising a hand to her headset. She had an idea."Very clean."

She pretended to activate the headset, "uh, sorry Midoriya, I got discovered by Iida." Uraraka made her hands shake as she took another step back and to the side, trying to draw Iida out and away from the window. She glanced up to the collection of rubble bobbing against the ceiling and she stuttered out the next part of her act. "He's going to catch me and you're still on the first floor!"

Iida chuckled menacingly, stretching his arms before him. "You're all alone with the world's greatest villain, little hero! And your teammate isn't coming for you." With a roaring of twin engines, he rushed forward across the room, perhaps a little slower than he would usually have been.

Uraraka raised her arms defensively and as she did, she looked past Iida to see Midoriya clinging to the window. He nodded at her, and she nodded back. She ducked under Iida's arm, before releasing her quirk and raining down a hellstorm of concrete rubble, broken glass, twisted metal, and a few wall panels she had grabbed while waiting for Midoriya to join her.

"Sorry, Iida!" She grabbed onto the arm above her, dragging Iida down to the floor to act as her human shield.

Iida all but shrieked as he came down, trying to stop his fall with his other hand. "AH!" He tried to pull away, but to his horror, chunks of rubble began to strike his armor, keeping him nailed in place with fear and shock. What if he ran into the glass and wasn't able to stop himself from getting hurt?

He could be blinded!

And he couldn't just leave Uraraka to the storm of chaos, she didn't have armor and could be grievously injured from her own attack. He might be playing a villain, but he was a hero through and through!

From behind them came the sound of shattering glass, and a heavy thud. "OW."

Iida turned back to see a blur of muddled greens and browns crash through the window, shattered glass exploding into the room, Uraraka laughing loudly in his ear the whole time. "What is happening!" He turned back and tucked his head down, trying to avoid getting glass in his eyes.

"This is mine now!" Izuku rushed forward, grabbing the paper mache missile as glass continued to rain down, small shards bouncing off his back as he hoisted the missile into the air.

Izuku ran in a circle around the room, the last of the rubble finally landing and the last of the glass falling from the window frame. With a triumphant cry, he placed the fake missile in the center of the room, throwing his fists into the air, wincing slightly as he stretched out his recently healing arm. "Windows for the win!"

A buzzer sounded and over the intercom came a crackle and a pop of static. _"Hero team, hero team wins!"_ All Might chuckled, the sound muffled as if he had tried to cover the microphone. _"Only seconds to spare, and the hero team wins."_

A loud scream reverberated through the building at those words, but for once, Izuku couldn't be bothered by Bakugou's opinion.


	11. Chapter 11

High on adrenaline, Izuku all but skips into the room, barely keeping himself from shrinking back when he feels all eyes upon him. That had been _amazing!_ Training with All Might was one thing, but this, even though it was just training, was on a whole other level, it just couldn't compare!

Overlapping voices and thoughts bombarded him as the other three trailed in behind him. If Izuku had turned around, he would have reeled at the look of disappointment and shame on his rival's face.

Once all four of them were there, All Might called for quiet, ready to begin the critique. Tucking his notecards into his belt, All Might gestured with a giant hand, pointing to Uraraka. "The best in the match was Uraraka, can anyone explain why?"

Uraraka stared at the hero as if he had just grown a second head. "Huh?"

One hand raised from among the group of students, and a calm yet commanding voice cut through the quiet. "Obviously, Uraraka is the best of the match," Yayorozu responded, taking a step forward, her heels clicking together as she came to a stop. It was a mystery as to _how_ they clicked, as she was wearing soft boots, but some mysteries in the universe aren't meant to be explained.

"What?!" Uraraka's jaw dropped, and she grabbed onto Midoriya's sleeve, her sweaty hands almost slipping off the rough weave of the fabric. In her nervousness, she wasn't careful enough to keep one finger raised.

Izuku almost hadn't noticed the quirk activation. _Almost,_ being the keyword. But he noticed when the constant weight that kept him from launching himself into the sky with each step suddenly vanished, replaced with a queasy feeling where his kidneys and modified adrenal glands should be. "Whoah!"

Uraraka yelped as she saw Midoriya begin to lift off of the floor, far too calm for what was happening. The boy stood stock-still as if hoping that by not moving, everything would stop. Her face bright red with dismay, Uraraka grabbed at Midoriya's boots as they passed her head, and she helped get him back to the earth before she released her quirk. "I'm sorry!"

"It's okay," Izuku muttered from within his helmet. He would have taken it off, but the pressure from the stares and Yayorozu's patient silence kept him from moving.

Once she saw that Uraraka wasn't going to send Midoriya to the ceiling, Yayorozu cleared her throat to continue. "That takedown of yours, no matter how clumsy it was, was certainly effective." "And the idea of using your quirk to create a cloud of debris was inspired."

"Oh, well, Midoriya gave me that idea."

"And your bluff, not sure what you were saying, but it seemed to be distracting enough to get Iida close to you," Yayorozu continued, but Uraraka ducked behind Midoriya, unable to handle the continuous praise and attention.

With a snort, Izuku just took off his helmet and stepped to the side, leaving his friend to her suffering. "Hah."

"And speaking of improvisational skills, Midoriya."

"Huh, what?" Izuku looked up in alarm, focusing his gaze above the shoulder of Yayorozu, nearly stumbling back with shock at the next words that were said.

"You used the expectations of your enemy against them, and your ability to create divisions in order to sneak is to say, extraordinary."

"Uhhh," Izuku's eyes went wide, and he took a step back, reeling from the force of the thoughts around him.

 _He's talented, that's for sure!_

 _And the way he took Bakugou out? Super scary, man!_

 _The absolute manliest! I hope I can be as good!_

 _How does he know how to jimmy locks like that?_

The only thing that drew him back to reality was a soft hand at his back, Uraraka helping to steady him against the storm. With a tight lipped smile, Izuku nodded by a fraction of a degree, hoping it was understood.

Izuku couldn't remember much of what was said or thought after that, but he was brought back around by a familiar voice calling to him.

"Midoriya, do you mind showing the rest to Recovery Girl's office?" All Might flashed a winning smile, barely able to cover his need to congratulate his student. _How on earth they all ended up injured when you didn't, I'll never understand._

"Uh, s-sure, no problem, All Might!" Izuku's hands shook, more than their usual tremble, and he nodded rapidly and repeatedly, opening the door and waiting for the other three to follow him. He held his helmet under one arm, holding the door with the other. "Right, um, follow me?"

"You heard the freak," Bakugou snapped, following Izuku closely, trying his best to keep his thoughts unreadable.

It wasn't working.

 _What did I do wrong? How the hell did he find me when I was being so careful? Unless…_

Izuku couldn't understand what Bakugou thought next, a garbled mess of images and nonsensical sound. Feelings and the like.

Things that didn't translate into anything he could understand.

Turning down a corner, then down another, the three followed Izuku like sheep to a shepherd, barely speaking to each other in the process. Mainly enjoying the quiet and thinking over what they had each been told.

Iida was thinking of how he was commended for trying to plan ahead for his enemies' attack.

Bakugou on his plan to split up the enemy and blind them with smoke.

And Uraraka was still reeling from the praise she had been given.

Breaking the quiet, Bakugou snarled. "Goddamnit, freak, how far away is this place?"

"Well, the office has to be accessible to everyone from all courses and all three years, so it's in the main building." Izuku slowed down as they approached the office, and soon it got to the point where the only reason he was moving was Bakugou's angry puffing and snarling behind him. "Th-the, uh, her office is here?"

With a quiet knock, Izuku jumped away from the door, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow to defend himself from a swinging cane. As the door creaked open, he shrunk further in on himself, standing only on one leg as he prepared to make a getaway.

Chiyo frowned out the door, glaring at Midoriya with the force of a thousand suns. "What are you doing back here, Midoriya?" She raised her cane, ready to raise hell, she hadn't even noticed the other three students behind the teenager, too focused on her target. "I told you not to come back for a week!"

Mustering up the courage to talk back, Izuku all but shouted, "you said _days,_ and I'm not here for me!"

"How on earth," Chiyo trailed off, looking at the scrapes and bruises on three of the teenagers. Miraculously, Midoriya was unharmed. She shook her head, pushing the door open further, "come in, come in."

She waved the three injured teens into her office, glaring at Midoriya lightly. "You're lucky… punk."

Izuku clapped excitedly, settling down to wait outside the office for his… friends? Were they all friends now? They rode the train together, had lunch together, that was enough for him.

This could be nice, he hadn't had so many friends before. He could get used to this.

* * *

"Is that?" Naomasa slowed his patrol car, looking through the throng of people milling around outside the train station. He pulled closer to the curb, following familiar green hair as its owner moved down the sidewalk. "It is."

Rolling down the window, the detective leaned out, "Midoriya!"

The green-haired boy kept his head down, muttering something to himself as he walked.

"He's doing that thing again, isn't he." Naomasa sighed before pressing on the horn for nearly an entire second. He glared back at everyone who stared, leaning over the center counsel and closer to the open window. "Hey, Midoriya!"

"Huh?" Izuku finally looked up from the sidewalk and the cables and pipes under it to turn and see who was trying to get his attention. He blinked a few times, looking at the police car that was keeping pace with him as he walked. "Detective Tsukauchi?"

"Get in, I'll give you a ride." Naomasa pulled over and rolled to a stop. "Using the backstreets, of course."

"Oh, th-thanks." Izuku reached for the rear door handle, only to be interrupted by a laugh and the detective shaking his head.

"Come on, you're not a criminal. Get up in the front," Naomasa said, leaning over and opening the passenger door from the inside. He pushed the door open wider, cutting off Midoriya's path in the process. "Make this a ride-along."

"Really?" Izuku laughed nervously as he walked around the car to the offered door, tucking his backpack in the footwell before sitting. He closed the door and buckled his seatbelt after only a moment of hesitation.

This was weird, right? This had to be weird.

"So, Midoriya," the detective paused, thinking over his words with more care than was necessary."How have you been?" _This is so weird._

Izuku was right, this was weird. "Uh, good?" He shrugged tiredly. "I've been good."

 _Lie._ Naomasa suppressed his need to roll his eyes at the kid's poor attempt at subterfuge. He didn't even need his quirk to tell him that he was lying.

"Haven't seen you in a while, I was starting to worry." Naomasa knew the kid tried his best not to be seen, but he still worried about him. _Kid looks tired, has he been taking care of himself?_

"I've been… around," Izuku answered cryptically.

"Yeah, I heard. UA, huh?" Naomasa slowed the car, waiting patiently at the stoplight. "That's gotta be exciting."

"It really is," Izuku said, excitement edging into his voice. "Every teacher is a pro-hero!"

Naomasa just snorted, trying his hardest not to laugh at the kid's sudden change in energy. _He really is just a kid,_ he thought. Stepping on the gas, he kept up with the flow of traffic. But he didn't miss how the energy seemed to fizzle out the closer he drove them to Midoriya's apartment.

Something was wrong.

The odd energy came to a head when he pulled into the parking lot, Midoriya all but clawing at the windows like a stressed-out cat. Parking the car, Naomasa shut off the engine, turning to Midoriya with a grave look. "So, how have you really been doing?"

"Great! I'm great," Midoriya said, his voice too chipper to be honest.

 _Lie._ Naomasa didn't take his eyes off the teens face, just raised an eyebrow in doubt.

Izuku sighed through his teeth, rubbing his temples gingerly. "I lied, I'm in a lot of pain."

 _Truth._ Naomasa knew what might help, and he started the car back up, pulling out of the parking lot and heading to one of his favorite places. "I can tell."

Settling back in his seat, Izuku continued, almost babbling at this point. "But that's how I can tell I'm alright, because of the pain." The constant searing agony of his twisted existence. "Am I making any sense?"

"None at all," Naomasa said honestly, not missing the frown on Midoriya's face.

Silence fell over the two of them, the only sound the noise of the road under the tires of the car and the sound from the engine.

"How do you do it?"

"Hmm?"

"How do you look out there," Izuku jerked his chin to point to the city as the car flew down the streets. "And think you can change things?"

The detective glanced to the side, watching Midoriya closely. Not for the first time, he was wondering if maybe too much pressure was being put on this kid. He was too young for this, wasn't he?

Ah, well, maybe in a perfect world, that would be the case. But this was reality. Reality was cruel and cold and hard to predict.

Izuku took a breath, his eyebrows drawn together in confused conflict. "People are awful, hiding every dark thought behind a bright mask." He shrugged, turning his gaze to his hands, watching the metal and ceramic move beneath his skin. They weren't exactly the hands of a hero. "I dunno. Maybe I'm just jaded from constantly hearing every sick and depraved thought everyone has."

"So what if you are, you're still trying." Naomasa slowed the car, pulling into the parking lot outside a tiny coffee shop.

"Yeah… yeah, I am."

* * *

Looking over his coffee, Tsukauchi watched Midoriya warily, unable to avoid seeing the way the teen jumped at every tiny noise, his eyes never setting in one place for too long. Honestly, the detective was starting to get a little worried. "Are you okay? You look paranoid. "

Izuku shook his head, taking a long drink from his coffee. Black, no sugar, two extra shots of espresso. "I'm not paranoid, just looking for snipers." Maybe he had drunk too much coffee today. It had been well over twelve cups at this point, even he had his limits. "Checking sightlines and hideaways."

 _Truth. Wait, what?_ "Why would you think there are snipers?"

With a shrug, Izuku answered, his tone too frank for even his own liking. "I always assume that everyone is a sniper." He took a sip of his coffee, the heat, and extended use of caffeine making a bead of sweat roll down his temple.

 _Truth._ "I'm pretty sure that's paranoia." Naomasa had seen paranoia, he was a detective, and he worked with heroes on an almost daily basis, he _knows_ paranoia. Intimately and maybe a little inappropriately.

Izuku waved away the detective's concern. "Is it really paranoia if they're actually out to get you?"

"...I guess not." Naomasa filed that thought away for later, planing on figuring that out when he had some free time. Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, he stared at Midoriya's sunglasses. "So, about what you said earlier."

"Right, the pain." Izuku took another sip of coffee, the heat fogging up the surface of his sunglasses almost immediately. He shrugged, his posture all but screaming ' _stop asking me questions, I hate talking about myself!'_ His grip tightened on the cup, the ceramic a few twitches of his fingers away from destruction. "I'm managing it. Been managing it for a while."

"Does Yagi know?"

Izuku shook his head, green curls falling over his eyes. "No. I don't know how to tell him. Don't know if I should." The hero had enough on his shoulders already, he didn't need to take on the burden of Izuku's problems.

Naomasa nodded; he knew how Yagi could act, especially if he was worried about someone. Even if he had no reason to be, the hero would fret and fret until he couldn't focus on a damn thing.

Like eating, or paperwork. So much improperly filled out paperwork.

"And speaking of pressure," Naomasa intelligently used the previous topic as a segue into his real concerns. "I'm worried you're being put under too much pressure," he said bluntly, gesturing to Midoriya with the stir stick from his coffee. "Just because you look up to Yagi doesn't mean you need to push yourself so hard."

Sternly, the detective continued to articulate his words with the wooden stick, his gaze intense. "Don't Plus Ultra yourself into an early grave," he said bluntly, words he often used to shame Yagi into getting sleep or doing something that normal humans did.

"..." Izuku paused, setting his cup of coffee back onto the table. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes were wide. Someone, someone he barely even knew! Was worried about him.

He had the feeling he would always be surprised by this.

"I know, it's probably a shock that I'm saying this, but listen, please." Naomasa looked the kid in the face, mentally ignoring the dark sunglasses. "I know you're not weak, or helpless, or anything like that, but I'm still going to worry about you."

"You're still a child," the detective said, his tone carrying an air of finality.

"Oh," Izuku said quietly, folding his hands on the table. He didn't need to read the detective's mind to see what was worrying him. "You're worried that I feel that I have some sort of… obligation, to be a hero simply because All Mi- _Yagi-san_ has been training me."

It was still a struggle to say 'Yagi-san' instead of 'All Might.' But he supposed it was better than calling him _'dad.'_

"Well, the first time we met, you showed next to zero interest in being a hero," Naomasa knew now that Yagi and Midoriya had come to some sort of understanding before he had arrived. But that did nothing to assuage his worry; in fact, it only made it worse. "I know that it's silly, you're more than capable, but I can't help worrying."

"... No wonder the two of you are friends."

"Huh?" Naomasa shook his head, picking his coffee back up and finishing it off to avoid needed to say anything. "He told me you were a little jokester who liked pushing buttons."

Putting on a bored air, Izuku asked, "was he wrong?"

"No. No, he was not." Naomasa resisted the urge to bang his head on the table, wondering why this was his fate. This was Yagi's weird kid, why was he the one getting messed with?! "Finish your coffee, I'll drive you home."

"Thanks, detective do-gooder," Izuku said cheerfully, holding his coffee cup in both hands, letting the heat seep into his skin.

"You…" Naomasa just gave up, relinquishing his tenuous hold on his sanity, giving away everything to the shifting tides of his misfortune. With a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling the headache he knew would be coming. "Alright, not the worst nickname I've ever had."

Waiting for Izuku to finish his coffee, Naomasa checked his phone, putting it away again when he saw over fifteen texts from All Might. He didn't need that right now.

The same way he ignored the texts, he ignored the way Midoriya seemed to be attempting to drown himself in his coffee, almost turning the cup over his head in his rush to finish. He had no room to judge the kid, he's done the same thing before, but good god, it was horrifying seeing something like that from an outside perspective.

"Done," Izuku said flatly, setting down the coffee cup and staring at the space above the detective's shoulder, silently daring him to say something.

"Alright, caffeine boy to the rescue," Naomasa muttered as he stood, not missing the blinding grin that was shot at him when Midoriya overheard his quip. "Let's get you back home."

Izuku nodded, following the detective back to his car. He felt better after getting that all off his chest, and he knows the caffeine had nothing to do with it.

He had already known he could trust detective Tsukauchi, but now he felt like he actually _knew_ him, not like he had just read his mind.

The car started, and Izuku's not sure what happened after that, his mind focused on the new mystery before him. Just because he could read a person's most intimate secrets and desires, know them better than they know themselves, it didn't mean he really knew them.

"Well, here we are," Namomasa pulled into the parking lot, stopping beside the curb, letting the engine idle. "You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I think so."

 _Truth._ Naomasa frowned, raising an eyebrow at what he knew he needed to do to wipe that look off the kid's face. As soon as Midoriya got out of the car, he smirked, leaning over the center console. "Is it true that you called All Might, 'dad?'"

Izuku just scowled and darted up the stairs with all the force he dared, bouncing off the wall as he rounded the corner and unlocked his apartment door. "Gah! He told you?!" His words echoed down the staircase, reverberating in the still air.

Laughing as he reached over to close the passenger side door, Naomasa pulled out of the parking lot and drove away. This had been… not _fun,_ but it had been nice. Getting to know the kid that had Yagi acting like a worried parent all the time had just been a bonus.

Up in his apartment, leaning against the door to his room, Izuku looked down at his hands once again. They might not be now, but he was going to _make_ them into hero's hands.


	12. Chapter 12

It's too early, and he's far too tired for this. Sleep hadn't come easy to him, his neighbor's cat sitting on the roof and staring at him when he was in his garden.

His pain-filled exhaustion had driven him into the artificial arms of the sleeping pills he took by the fistful in his bathroom.

At least he didn't dream.

And as for that cat… one of these days, he was just going to have to ask his neighbor what it's deal was, because he couldn't get a thing from the animal.

He stops at the corner of the street, a few other students passing him by, not paying him the slightest bit of attention. Just how he likes it. His jacket is in his backpack; instead, he's wearing a soft grey sweater, so it's not like he would be recognized in the first place.

The sweater was actually a sickening neon pink, but that's beside the point.

His breath is heavy with the smell of black coffee, and he takes a sip from his travel mug as he looks at the mess before him.

Izuku had never seen so many reporters in his life. The crowd was thick, bulky cameras and microphones abound. He could hear the shouted questions from across the street.

He wants nothing to do with any of that.

Luckily for him, he knows a shortcut now.

Pulling his backpack straps tight, he jogged towards his destination, attention that would have been on him focused on the shouting crowd.

With an enhanced jump, he's climbing the tree across the street from UA's main gate. Just like last time, it's far too easy. Then it's just a skip and a hop to the roof of the building behind him. Walking across the roof, Izuku turns to face UA, leans down until his fingertips graze the rooftop, and he _sprints_ , a cloud of dust and gravel flying up behind him, and with one foot, he launches himself higher, pushing off from the edge of the roof and all but flying towards the green grass of UA's lawn. He twisted in the air, narrowly avoiding dropping his backpack as he flipped head over heels, skidding as he landed, the way he dug in all ten of his fingers doing nothing to slow him down, only tearing stips of the grass up.

So maybe he did it better this time. More finesse and more pizzazz.

Reporters? avoided.

Grass? even more dead than last time.

Everyone who can see him? Shock and awe.

Wait.

Great. People saw him.

So he wasn't as stealthy as he would have liked, but at least he wasn't caught on camera.

"Midoriya?" The voice was familiar, but both warm and concerned this time around instead of plain excited. "Did you just… jump the wall?"

Izuku adjusted his sunglasses before looking up into the face of Mirio Toogata. "Oh, how are you?" He brushed his hands together, clumps of dirt and blades of grass fluttering to the ground with each pass of his hands. He kept his voice level, acting worry-free as he wiped his hands on his sweater. "How's training going?"

"Good, but." Mirio shrugged, awkwardly trying to project his thoughts. _I don't think I can handle One for All yet._ "Well, it's fine."

He doesn't know how Midoriya's mind-reading works, so if it sounded as if he was yelling, he was quickly forgiven.

"'Fine,'" he echoed, his tone questioning. Izuku raised his eyebrows, taking a closer look. Oh, _fine._

Hairline fractures, strained and stressed tendons, nearly pulled muscles. He was the only one that could see it, the stress on his mind.

Like crumpled book pages haphazardly smashed shut.

Fine.

Mirio was fine the same way he was fine.

"You," Izuku did his best to keep his voice level, his worry mounting the more minor injuries he saw. "You should probably see Recovery Girl. And soon." He sighed, pulling his backpack around himself and unzipping it to grab his travel coffee. "But you're fine, right?"

"Yep!" Mirio stared at where he had seen Midoriya come launching over the wall, he _knew_ that wasn't a normal thing for people to do. He didn't have the best reference for that, but he _knew_ that it was weird. "The wall?"

"Reporters," was Izuku's one-word answer.

"Ah, right, your camera aversion." Mirio nodded before he laughed, seeing his friends staring at him and Midoriya as if they had just claimed the earth was flat, and space was fake. He rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly, "Oh, what am I thinking! These are my friends!"

"Amajiki, Hadou, this is Midoriya!" He gestured between his friends and the twitching mess beside him. "We train together sometimes!"

 _They don't know All Might is training me, don't say anything._

"Hello." Amajiki nodded once, and Izuku immediately approved of him. Calm, mostly rational, with an anxiety and paranoia that could almost rival his own. Did he believe in conspiracy theories?

Izuku blinked slowly as he turned the pages of his mind gently, reading what was there with ease. Oh, unfortunately not. But no matter, his quirk seemed pretty cool.

"Oh, he's so… scruffy!" Hadou moved to pinch Midoriya's cheek, but his fearful aura seemed to boil up in anticipation of her actions, and she kept her hands to herself. "Where did you find him?"

Hmm, she wasn't as much the airhead as she pretended to be. Izuku understood acting how people expect, it's nice to see someone else who understood.

Her mind was… _bright_ was the only word that came to mind. All of it, just bright.

"I tr-tried to stomp his face into oblivion," Izuku answered honestly, raising an eyebrow at Mirio's sudden sheepish attitude. "He came up out of the kitchen floor, and I thought he was an assassin."

"Yeah, that's our Mirio!" Hadou laughed, the sound warm and inviting. She clapped her hand on Mirio's back, giggling as the look he shot back at her. "Always hiding places he shouldn't be!"

Amajiki was quiet, hands in his pockets. This kid… had jumped The UA Wall from across the street. Super strength? "...he's lucky you didn't break the floor trying to stomp on him."

 _Why'd he think you were an assassin?_

"I didn't break _anything_ … until later." Izuku grinned, showing too many teeth.

But no one reacted. No grimaces or thoughts of disgust.

It was… nice?

"I still have to get you back for scamming me!" Mirio grinned back at him, an overwhelming likeness to All Might. "I'm faster now, I can beat you with my hands tied behind my back!"

"You don't use your hands to run."

"Ugh, so rational!" Mirio snapped his fingers, coming up with another challenge. "Fine, let's see who can do the most pushups!"

"As fun as that sounds, we really should do that some time, I have to get to class." And it really did sound fun, if Izuku could admit it to himself.

"Ah! We should hang out," Mirio all but shouted into Izuku's impassive face, his fists clenched at his sides. _Can't you tell I just want to be friends with you?_

Izuku blinks slowly, not reacting to the fact that Mirio is less than six inches from his face.

"Oh, right. Friendship. For some reason, people want that. With me. Weird." Izuku shook his head, adjusting his sunglasses from where they had slipped down his nose. Future symbol of peace can't even say he wants to be friends, huh? What a guy.

With a shrug, Izuku asked, "well, why didn't you just say so?"

Mirio straightened up, shocked, and delighted. "That was an option?!" _I thought… but you're so mysterious, how was I supposed to know?!_

"'Mysterious,'" Izuku mumbled under his breath before answering Mirio's rhetorical question. "...yes, yes, it was an option all along."

He was _mysterious?_ Really?

Maybe he needed more coffee because he certainly wasn't awake enough for this. He fumbled with his coffee as he turned to leave, and without missing a beat, he was joined by his newest of friends.

"I'll walk with you, yeah?"

Izuku glanced to where his new companion was keeping pace with him, tempted to just break into a sprint and be done with it. But he didn't need even _more_ attention on himself. "Do I have a choice?"

"Nope!"

Izuku rolled his eyes, ducking down until he was almost doubled over to avoid the arm Mirio tried to fling over his shoulder. "Ugh."

"That's the spirit!"

"Why."

As the two were locked in a competitive game of _'we're gonna be great friends' / 'please don't touch me,'_ Hadou and Amajiki walked behind them, transfixed by the sight.

Hadou grabbed the cuff of Amajiki's sleeve, tugging on it lightly. "Wow, this is really weird to watch, but I can't look away!"

"It's like he's trying to befriend a terrifying statue." Amajiki trails behind the two, who, on the outside, seem like polar opposites. But then Mirio makes the worst joke he's heard, and he sees Midoriya crack the smallest smile he's ever seen, and it all makes sense. Of course, two people that bright would gravitate towards each other. "A statue that smells like coffee."

"And onions!" Hadou giggles before a curious expression creeps across her face. "But _why_ does he smell like onions?"

Izuku screamed internally. Cursed to forever smell like onions, this is just his life now.

* * *

Trying his hardest to focus on the conversation with his friend instead of the steadily growing mass of minds around him, Izuku nodded where it felt appropriate and tried to keep his voice from cracking when he laughed. Really, it wasn't too hard. Toogata seemed like a cool guy, when he wasn't popping out of the floor, that is.

"So anyway, that's when I said, 'no, those are _my_ pants!'"

Okay, so maybe he _wasn't_ cool.

Izuku shook his head, cracking a crooked grin. "Maybe you shouldn't have fought a villain whose entire theme is 'pants.'"

"Right?!" Mirio laughed, happy to see a smile on the normally unaffected kid's face. Even if it meant embarrassing himself.

Izuku took a sip of his coffee, focusing his thoughts. Man, he _really_ wasn't as cool as he had thought.

Lack of coolness aside, he wouldn't have a problem hanging out with Toogata again. And he certainly wouldn't have a problem completely destroying him in any physical challenge again.

But with how his bones looked right now, he would have to keep that on the backburner for quite a while. Or he could just knock him out and drag him to Recovery Girl. Yeah, that sounds good.

Actually, with those fractures, he shouldn't drag him. Guess he'll just have to carry him, then.

Chuckling to himself, Izuku pointed to the drainpipe at the corner of the building. "This is my stop." He tucked his coffee back into his bag before he tightened the straps and began to make his ascent. "Have a nice day," he said offhandedly, knowing how odd it would seem.

Maybe that's why he did it, or maybe not.

 _What._

 _What._

 _Cool! Sir said he jumped out a window once, but this is better? Maybe?_

"Bye!"

"Have a nice day?"

"Kids weird, but that's pretty cool?"

Izuku rolled his eyes, shimmying up the last bit of pipe and rolling onto the roof and onto his feet, watching and counting classrooms as he tried to find the familiar mass of thoughts of his own class. Up ahead, he could hear them.

 _Second day of school, what's the next insane thing we'll be doing?_

 _Where's Midoriya? I say him on the train._

 _Where's the freakshow at?_

With a tiny laugh, Izuku lowered himself off the edge, carefully dropping himself onto the first windowsill then onto the second a beat later. He knocked, laughing in full when he saw the terrified and confused looks on his classmates' faces. He knocked again, hopping through the window once Bakugou opened it with a plastered on sneer.

"Nice entrance, nutjob." Bakugou rolled his eyes as he shut the window behind him. On the outside, his face was an angry mask, but internally, something he knew only IZuku could hear, he was almost breaking down into hysterics. Everyone was so _frightened_ of someone knocking on the window! Just knocking! What else would frighten them, he couldn't help but wonder.

With a raised eyebrow, Izuku took that in. Maybe he should show up early tomorrow, but hide to scare everyone. It was obvious Bakugou would get a kick out of it, at least. Quietly he whispered, "th-thanks for the idea." Then louder, he grumbled over his shoulder as he turned away. "Jackass."

From across the room, an authoritative voice called out, "Midoriya, coming through the window is undignified behavior for a hero!" _At least he was on time._

Izuku rolled his eyes, confident that he was going to give himself a permanent injury at this rate. "Heeen… mrh." Damn, _that's_ the reaction he got?

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, I got held up by a fr-friend." Izuku set about pulling his sweater off, the long sleeve athletic shirt he wore underneath held in place from where it was tucked into his pants. As he folded the sweater and pulled on his blazer, he tried not to flinch as Shinsou approached him. What if he _saw_ , Izuku tried to hide all the scars, but he couldn't hide them all.

Ignorant to his friends' worries, Shinsou put on a fake frown, acting dejected and downtrodden. "Aw, someone other than me?"

"You rank higher, barely," Izuku said dryly, putting his sweater in his bag and taking out a pair of grey fingerless gloves, pulling them on to hide the majority of his scars.

An amused snort was Shinsou's only answer as he sat down at the desk behind Izuku's,

Izuku's head twitched to the side, muscles spasming. Great. Just what he needed. Pushing through the pulling sensation in his neck, he continued, trying to keep his voice steady. "You've actually been to my apartment."

He ignored the surprised thoughts of everyone who heard that. So what if it had only been two days of knowing each other, who were they to judge how fast he made friends?

"Yeah, and I'm still working on all those leftovers your mom gave me." Shinsou leaned against his desk, watching Midoriya curiously. "So, who were you distracted by?"

How did this kid seem to just collect friends so quickly?

"A third-year who thinks I'm 'mysterious,' and 'cool.'" Izuku snorted, shaking his head, his bangs falling into his eyes. He brushed them away with the back of his hand, shrugging. "Weird, right?"

"No, you're pretty mysterious," Shinsou replied honestly.

A third voice chimed in, Uraraka finally giving in and joining the conversation from across the room. "And cool!"

"I'm too tired for this," Izuku removed his coffee and set it on his desk before he sat down, leaning heavily back in his seat, the metal creaking with his movement. "Oh, hell no," he muttered, resolving himself to ask Aizawa-sensei for an altered density desk and chair by the end of the day.

If he refused, he's just going to have to _push_ the issue a bit. If he ended up destroying a desk, the chair, and the floor, so be it.

"I see you're all seated." Aizawa could admit he was impressed with how quickly they learned. "I hope everyone," he glanced to three students in particular, "is well-rested after yesterday's battle trial."

Iida and Bakugou had the decency to look guilty, but Uraraka just giggled, no shame for what she had done. It had been cool using her quirk like that, and she was maybe a little more proud of the destruction than she should have been.

"I looked over everyone's scores, and I must say you didn't do as terribly as I had expected."

"Nice," Izuku muttered, settling back in his seat from where he had leaned forward without even noticing.

"And now that we've got that over with let's get on with the homeroom requirements." Aizawa brushed his hair from his face, taking a dramatic pause, feeling the tension in the room begin to ramp up. "Don't like springing this on you so early, but-"

 _Oh no, is it a pop quiz?_

 _Is he going to expel someone again?_

 _Please say it's something normal? PLEASE._

 _Oh no, it's battle royal, isn't it? He's gonna send us to the island! I'm gonna die first!_

Izuku sat up straighter, looking for whoever had thought _that._ His focus landed on the girl with the quirk he couldn't figure out. She sat at the front of his row of desks, and her thoughts got more and more dramatic with time. He thought _he_ had drama on lock, but that was a whole other level.

Aizawa kept his face all but expressionless."It's time for you to choose a class president."

 _Oh, thank fuck, that's so normal!_

 _I thought for sure I was going to get expelled!_

 _I'm too young to die by murder! Oh. Class president? YES._

The classroom erupted in sound, and Izuku barely kept himself from diving back out the window.

"I'm perfect for this!"

"Leadership, hell yeah! I'll do it, me me me!"

"This was made for me!"

"OH, pick me, pick me!"

"I wanna do it too."

"Shut up you extras, let me do it!"

Izuku pressed his hands over his ears, muffling the sound but not blocking out the thoughts. It was just too much _noise._ Usually, he could deal with this, but something about having everyone thinking and saying essentially the same thing was just too much for him to take. _"Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shutupshut up SHUT UP."_

He's not sure if he's speaking or thinking, but based on how everyone is still clamoring to get Aizawa-sensei's attention, he's only thinking it. With a shaky exhale, he pulls his hands away from his ears and clenched them into fists on his desk. Focus on the metal. On the ceramics. On the bits of bone he can still see.

"Everyone be quiet!"

 _Huh,_ Izuku looks up, away from his shaking hands. _Who said that?_

Authoritative, Iida continued, voice carrying over the hushed rabble-rousing of eighteen other people. "This is a position that requires responsibility, helping to carry and raise up those around you. Simply because you _want_ the position doesn't mean you're right for it." Iida stood, basically vibrating from how stiffly he had his arm and hand raised into the air. "This requires the trust and support of those around you, and the only way a _true leader_ can be found is through the democratic process!"

Shinsou snorted, leaning back in his seat. "So he says, his hand raised higher than everyone else's."

"It's been less than a week, it's too early for people to have developed any trust for each other." Tsuyu glanced to the other side of the room, _well, aside from him._

Kirishima nodded, shark teeth gnawing at his lip. "Everyone will just vote for themselves, right?"

"And that's how you can tell who is a true leader by seeing who has more than a single vote!" Iida turned his attention to the front of the classroom, all but shouting now. "Isn't that right, sensei?!"

Aizawa grumbled, zipping himself into his sleeping bag. "As long as you decide before the end of class, anything goes." He somehow manages to sit without the help of his arms, and he does so without knocking himself completely to the floor, and he rolls under his desk, hoping to get a nap in before the end of the class.

There's the sound of paper being cut, and he closes his eyes, knowing this is going to somehow be a disaster.

* * *

Shinsou glanced back to Midoriya, his eyebrows raised. He turned in his seat, gesturing to the paper in his friends' hands before making the closest to eye contact he could.

Izuku shook his head in response; he didn't want the position. Besides, he was voting for someone else, anyway. With an already ink smudged hand, he wrote a name, _Iida Tenya,_ and he capped his pen, satisfied with his choice.

With a nod, Shinsou understood, writing a name on the slip of paper in his hands. _Yaoyorozu Momo._

Folding the paper, Izuku kept it in his palm, knowing it was already wrinkled beyond flattening just from a few twitches of his fingers.

When Iida comes around to collect the impromptu ballots, Izuku hands his over, settling back in his seat with a sigh. He takes a long drink of his coffee, hoping to calm his nerves.

Something's going to happen, and he has a bad feeling he's going to absolutely hate it.

He was right, it's a disaster.

He was right, he hates it.

Izuku watched with a detached horror as the votes were tallied. A three way tie. How the hell did that even happen?! He glared around the room, searching for answers that he soon got. Five people had voted for people other than themselves, and Izuku was one of them. But as for why people voted for _him_ was something he couldn't understand.

Voting for Iida and Yaoyorozu, he could understand. _They_ were leadership material, and they actually _wanted_ the positions!

Irritated, Izuku stood, stalking to the front of the classroom. He didn't notice the way everyone fell silent as he spun in a perfect about-face, heels clicking together. Standing stock-still, shoulders thrown back, chest out, head held high, hands clasped behind his back the way _they_ had taught him, Izuku announced, his words crisp and selected for maximum impact and minimum amount. "I am sorry to disappoint those who voted for me, but I am dropping out of this election. I refuse the position. Thank you."

With a quick bow, he turned on his heel and marched back to his desk, ignoring the whispers. He had barely kept himself from saluting, but he knew he had made a powerful impression without it. He seated himself, back ramrod straight as words flowed around him.

"Is it just me, or was that super militaristic?"

"Wow, that was… intense."

"Damn freak, way to mix it up on us."

"Revote then?"

"Think of it like preliminaries!"

"Admitting you don't want something and refusing to waste time? So manly and cool!"

Aizawa unzipped his sleeping bag and stood back up, wondering why this kid always had to make things difficult for him. "Alright, you two," he pointed to the two remaining elected students, both who were standing by their desks in an attempt to follow and sort out whatever it was Midoriya had done. "Figure out among yourselves who's in charge."

* * *

"Midoriya! Come eat lunch with us!"

Again? It's nice. A little bit of routine.

With a nod, Izuku followed the three to their table, sitting as soon as he could, sorting out his pills for the day.

"You alright?" Uraraka leans over to ask, almost whispering in his ear. "All the yelling, and...stuff?"

"Yeah, it's just a lot." Izuku swallowed his palmful of pills, washing them down with a mouthful of coffee. "Ugh," he chugged half his coffee in one go, trying to wash the taste out of his mouth. "Gross."

Shinsou picked at his meal. It didn't compare to Midoriya-san's cooking. "So, you finish that issue of Lone Gunman yet?"

"YES!" Izuku can't help but be excited; he had been wanting to find someone to talk to about it since he had finished. "That article about SBC's in Europe?"

"Right? The fuckin, the photos!" Shinsou nearly swooned, there was _proof_ of SBC's in Europe, and now he was just eagerly awaiting the next cryptid that would be hunted and found. "Whoever Profesional Deadman is, he's amazing!"

"If I believed in love, I'd love him," Izuku said flatly, hoping Shinsou knew Profesional Deadmans tagline.

Shinsou held back his laugh at the look on Izuku's face before it slipped out in a squeak. He made his voice overly deep and gravely, mimicking someone who had only once been recorded. "'Ah, yes. Love, the ultimate conspiracy,'" he quoted, biting his lip to keep his laughter in. Clearing his throat, he asked, "you think he'll ever find _that_ cryptid?"

"No way," Izuku said, false negativity filling his tone. "Too bad."

The two stare at each other for a moment before the both break down into giggles, Shinsou's halting and stuttery, and Izuku's high pitched and choked out, harsh sounding, as if he doesn't know what laughter is for.

It's more like cackling, and it draws more attention than he would like.

"What are you two even talking about?"

"Conspiracy."

"Conspiracy."

"Oh, okay?"

"So, what about that vote," Shinsou drawled, chucking at Izuku's pained expression. "Don't look at me like that, I voted for Yayourozu."

"I know."

 _He knows? How?_

"Not sure why anyone voted for me, I haven't really made myself likable." Izuku knew he creeped some people out, and he was okay with that. Besides, he was going to be an underground hero one day, he didn't need to be popular.

"Well," Uraraka's face was hot, she could feel how the red of her cheeks was even more pronounced than usual. "I voted for you because you're really smart and always know what to do!"

"And I voted for you because you're more than capable of rallying people together and carrying the class through in times of crisis," Iida added, wondering why Midoriya had refused the position.

"Oh, no thank you?" Izuku frowned, he didn't know what he had wanted to say, but it wasn't that.

"Hah." Shinsou shook his head, Midoriya really didn't seem to be able to take a compliment, did he?

Uraraka turned to watch Iida, eyebrows furrowed. "But didn't you want to be class president?" She couldn't stop herself before her next words came tumbling out. "You've even got the glasses look, too."

"Haha." Shinsou knows it's mean to laugh, and based on how he gets kicked from under the table by two different feet, so does everyone else. "Ow."

"As I said before, simply desiring the position means nothing." Iida refuses to admit that he's embarrassed. Because he certainly isn't. "I simply followed my own judgement on the matter."

"Shitty judgement," Shinsou muttered, immediately feeling the heat of Midoriya's glare on his face. "Fine, sorry."

"Iida, you're so…" Izuku wanted to say, _uptight,_ but he knew that wouldn't go over very well. "Proper?"

"Yeah," Uraraka nodded, "you're so honorable and such!" She leaned forward, a question at the ready. "Are you from some upper class, richy rich family?"

"Richy rich?" Izuku kept his laughter at bay. Mostly.

Iida barely managed to keep himself from turning his face away, not wanting anyone to see how uncomfortable he was. He hadn't wanted anyone to find out so quickly. "I don't really like it when it's brought up, but if I must talk about it," he steeled his nerves, wishing he had had the chance to cement the friendship before who he was related to was revealed.

He couldn't keep the doubt of the strength of the friendship from bleeding into his words. "Yes, I'm from a family that has been in heroics for generations."

Clearing his throat, Iida continued, "do you know the Turbo Hero, Ingenium?"

Izuku's eyes were wide behind his sunglasses. "Duh, he's super popular! Has over sixty sidekicks, and always ranks first in polls for geniality and approachability! Voted the-" Izuku barely reigned in his need to rattle off every statistic he knew, slapping both hands over his mouth to stop the stream of information.

"Wait, does that mean…" Shinsou cracks a crooked grin. He didn't know he was eating lunch with an elite. _My my, moving on up in the world._

"You're quite well informed." Iida had to admit he was surprised that Midoriya knew about the polls. They weren't exactly well circulated. "But, that's right!" A sense of pride, whether for his family or just for his brother, he couldn't be sure, swept over him. With renewed enthusiasm, he continued, "he's my older brother, and I aspire to be a hero like him! Someone who the people look to for support and guidance!"

"Wow, so enthusiastic," Izuku mumbled under his breath, looking away from everyone to stare down at the table. Why was everyone around him so damned _bright?_

"You know," Uraraka began, watching Iida intently as she spoke. "I think that's the first time I've actually seen you smile!" _Adorable._

"What? I smile, I smile all the time!" Iida felt his face burn under the intense stares of both Uraraka and Shinsou. _Is this what bullying is?!_

"Nah, Solar Power is right." Shinsou was sticking to that nickname even if it ended up killing him. "Never seen you smile before." _Ugh, it's like looking at a bundle of joy. Gross, I think I hate it. Yep, one hundred percent, hate it._

Izuku choked back a laugh, Shinsou's attempts to convince himself he hated what was happening were an exercise in futility. At least Uraraka could admit it. Maybe friendship was a good thing for all of them?

 _So Ingenium is to Iida as All Might is-_ was _-still is? to me,_ Izuku thought. He focused on Shinsou and Uraraka, somehow still ganging up on Iida about him smiling, listening on with a crooked grin.

He relaxed, just a little bit, letting the calm wash over him.

The jumble of minds from the mass media is still outside the gate, then, to his horror, they were coming closer.

He almost misses the blaring of the alarm in his shock, and everything seems to fade into a greyish haze.

There's screaming.

Shouting.

(Fear.)

Everyone's moving, pushing and shoving, trying to escape.

(Run.)

It's chaos.

Izuku tries to keep himself from being trampled, his weight the only thing keeping him from being swept along in the current of panic. But it's too much. Hundreds of minds packed in on place, the press of the media overlapping over them, and he can't take it.

It's like he's caught in a vice, pressing on all sides.

 _The screaming_

 _Too much_

Too familiar.

(Running.)

(Blood on his hands.)

(When?)

(Where is he?)

There's someone out there, someone who doesn't belong.

His knees give out.

 ** _...All Might… your time is coming..._**

He rolls under the closest table, hands pressing at his ears to block anything out.

In a desperate attempt to protect itself, his mind all but shuts down, and the last thing Izuku hears are the words, "there's nothing to panic about, it's okay."

But the voice, familiar, authoritative, is w _rong._

There is something, _someone,_ to panic about.

They're coming soon.


	13. Chapter 13

There's so much sound. _Too_ much sound. Voices, thoughts, both of them overlapping and mingling. He can't tell them apart. Even though they all so different, it all sounds the same.

His hands are clamped over his ears, his sunglasses slipped down to the tip of his nose, doing nothing to block out the mass of bodies outside the building. He knows it's the media, but knowing doesn't change a thing.

"Where's Midoriya?"

Is that Iida? Or maybe it's Uraraka?

"I think he's under the table."

No, _that_ was Uraraka, wasn't it?

Shinsou blinked twice, letting those words settle in before he bent down and looked under the table. "Midoriya? Are you alright?"

Izuku just snarled, baring his teeth against the phantom pains of scalpels on his skin. He didn't know who was there; he just wanted them _gone._

As if he could see his friends meaning in the sound, Shinsou straightened back up immediately. "I think I should go get Aizawa-sensei."

Footsteps signaled someone leaving, and Izuku numbly noted it was Shinsou. The part of him not wholly overrun by panic was busy berating himself for snarling at his friend like some sort of wild animal.

That panic overtook him again, and he growled when he saw someone lean down to look under the table, and when a hand reached towards him, he lashed out, slapping at the hand and ignoring the stream of words being said.

"He tried to punch me!" Iida pulled his hand back quickly, surprise painted across his face.

Izuku's eyebrows furrowed. No, he hadn't. It was only a slap.

"It's 'cuz you're grabbin' at 'im!" Uraraka kneeled down, watching Midoriya with concern. She didn't reach towards him, making sure Midoriya could see that her hands were settled on her lap. "Midoriya? Shinsou went to get Aizawa-sensei, is… is that alright?" She frowned, eyebrows drawing together in concern. _Do you want us to leave once he gets here?_

Forcing the panic back by a centimeter, Izuku nodded once.

 _My cousin used to get this sometimes. Overwhelming Sensory Overlap?_

It was more than that, but he couldn't explain it.

Izuku nodded once more, the moment of calm broken again as he heard the approaching thoughts of Shinsou and Aizawa.

 _I hope he's okay._

 _So, the problem child had a panic attack? I should have expected something like this to happen-_

 ** _(Where's Patient Fifteen? Should have expected him to pull something like this. And right when we need to prep him for traNnspLlaNt)_**

Shinsou huffed, out of breath and red-faced from running to the classroom and back in such a short time. "I'm back; he still under the table?"

"He tried to punch me…" Iida was still stuck on that, watching the table cautiously as he backed away.

"We should go," Uraraka worried her lip, looking everywhere except the table Izuku was crouched under. "He wouldn't want us to see him like this."

Aizawa waved the three teenagers away, subtly directing them to the exit. "You three get to class; I'll handle this."

Hesitantly, Uraraka agreed. "Okay…" _Come on, Midoriya, you can get through this._

 _ **(Where's PATient Fifteeeeen?)**_

Aizawa waited for the three students to leave before he kneeled down, watching as Midoriya twitched and made nonsensical sounds under his breath. "Kid?"

"Damn it." Aizawa snapped his fingers, getting no response. "Hey, you in there?

 _Don't be like this, kid,_ Aizawa sighed before reaching out a hand.

Izuku's eyes rolled back, and he jolted to his feet, sending the table flying back as it slammed into his back as he stood. He wasn't here.

He was _there._

With _them._

Trapped in the Hospital.

Locked in the Operation Theater.

(Run.)

 _(Hide.)_

Where is he?

 _ **(You can't hidE PRoblem BOY)**_

Even though he's not sure where he is, it doesn't mean he'll go down without a fight. A snarl curling his lip and his fists raised, Izuku whipped around, searching the room before locking on the source of the thoughts.

"Keep your hand away from me before I _rip_ it off." His words were slurred, but his stutter thankfully stayed away, seeming to know it would weaken his threat.

"Damn, kid." Aizawa slowly stood, raising an eyebrow at the murderous intent flowing off the kid like ocean waves. Shinsou had said it looked like a panic attack, but maybe it was more than that.

Izuku slapped a hand over his mouth as his stomach lurched. Spinning on his heel, he scrambled towards the closest trash can, gripping the sides as he emptied his stomach contents.

"Kid, you alright?" Aizawa took a half step forward, stopping himself before he could go any further. Yes, he was worried, but he knew better than to approach a possibly dangerous situation. The kid was in the middle of some sort of fit and had already lashed out violently more than once.

He'd rather not get punched.

Spitting a few times, unable to clear the taste of vomit and regurgitated medication from his mouth, Izuku's hands clenched on the rim of the trash can. His shoulders shook.

The mass presence of the media was gone, and it left his head feeling all too empty.

And with his head empty and mind blank, his darkness came rushing back.

(Scalpels)

(No anesthesia)

(Fear)

 _(Pain.)_

 _(Run.)_

 _ **(Run.)**_

 _ **(Run.)**_

It's hot. Too hot. Izuku was running on autopilot, and he pulled off his blazer, tossing it to the side before all but yanking his uniform shirt open and off. He pushed up the sleeves of his undershirt, feeling his scarred skin cool by degrees.

He had to get out of here.

He turns to run, his escaped blocked by the loops of Eraserhead's capture tool.

He backed up, turning again to meet another blocked exit.

"Come on, kid; you're safe here. Let me-

Coming back to himself, Izuku snapped, words tumbling out. "Shut up, or I'm going to seal you in an oil drum and ship you to Australia." Izuku's eye twitched as he thought that through. "Wait, can't send you to Australia, Thorn Ridge has an outpost there. Canada."

He jumped over the loop of capture tool, grabbing onto it as he did and yanking it towards him, hoping to pull its user off balance. "I'll never go back," he hissed, as he continued to pull, slowly dragging Eraserhead towards him even as the hero leaned back and dug his heels in.

But he didn't see Eraserhead. He didn't see his teacher, worried about his student.

He just saw another obstacle.

"Dammit, kid," Aizawa had to admit he was impressed, even as he was pulled across the floor. This kid had strength enhancement, but most people didn't think of using it the way he did. Enhancing dodges and leaps. Using it to control the playing field.

But right now, it was just annoying.

Kid needs help, and he's running away from it. Another yank at his capture tool pulls him out if his thoughts. Aizawa sighed, releasing his grip on the tool and letting it fly from his hands, the kid falling on his ass in surprise.

And what the hell was he talking about, Thorn Ridge had been shut down years ago, hadn't it? And how did a kid even _know_ about the defunct counter-intelligence agency?

"Oh come on," Aizawa muttered when Midoriya launched himself back to his feet and picked up a chair, swinging it wildly. He was going to have to call in some backup, wasn't he? With a sigh, he pulled out his phone, pressing speed dial for who he _hoped_ would make this end quickly. He barked into the phone, snatching up his capture tool in the same motion. "Cafeteria. Some sort of panic attack gone wrong. Get here now."

For two minutes, Aizawa had to alternate between defense and trapping, dodging chairs and tables in his effort to keep the kid inside. Really, Midoriya was determined, even though he had no clue what was going on.

"I'm he- the hell is going on here, huh?" Midnight ducked just in time to dodge a chair that flew at her in an almost slow arc. Not an attack, but a warning.

'Come close, and the next one will hit,' sort of warning.

"Kid's having some sort of breakdown, need you to knock him out."

At that, Izuku stood up straighter, adjusting his grip on his newly acquired chair, holding it like some sort of deranged lion tamer. "I'll never go back," he shouted, sunglasses falling from his face as he threw the chair forward, using as a distraction while lunging to the side and to the window. "I won't be controlled!"

(Run)

(They'll _find_ you)

(Don't let them catch you.)

He ran hard, arms crossed in front of his face, and his head ducked down. "You'll never take me back to the Hospital!"

"Oh shit!" Midnight watched with horrified eyes as the kid sprinted towards the window, determination rolling off him in waves.

Izuku slammed into the shatterproof glass, cracking it. He backed up and rammed it with his shoulder, the crack spiderwebbing across the pane as he slammed it a third time. A wild look on his face, he dived through his new exit, not even noticing the loops of Eraserhead's capture tool snapping around him.

"Damn, this kid's heavy," Aizawa could feel bruises forming where his capture tool cut into his skin as he hauled the kid back up, leaning back so far he was nearly parallel to the floor. And the fact that the kid was thrashing like an animal in a trap wasn't really helping. "Come on," he growled under his breath as he finally hauled the kid back in the window, wrapped up in the loops of the capture tool like a mummy. A struggling and angry mummy.

Holding the fabric tight in his hands, Aizawa called out, "now! Nemuri, dose him."

A cloud of pink mist, already dissipating through the broken window, surrounded Midnight and the wrapped up Midoriya. Snarls and hisses came from the kid for far longer than they should have before they slowly fade out into soft breathing.

The kid still jerked and twitched in his sleep, hands in fists, still ready to fight.

"Fucking hell," Midnight stared down at the kid, taking in scars and half-closed black eyes that spoke of nausea. There was something … not right about the kid. Unnatural.

She looked away, her skin crawling. "You wanna tell me what that was about, Shouta?"

Aizawa shrugged, rubbing the deep striped bruises on his forearms. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Whoever Midoriya had thought they were, he had been scared and ready to fight to his last breath.

* * *

Izuku slowly surfaced back to consciousness, surrounding surface thoughts breaking over his mind before he forced them to the background. He kept his eyes closed, but watched his surroundings through the lids.

He was in Recovery Girl's office, and he was alone.

What had happened earlier?

Things were sort of a blur after the alarm had been triggered.

Had he gotten hurt?

He remembered falling out the window...

No.

He had _jumped_ out the window.

He had _broken_ the window after trying to throw a chair at Midnight and Eraserhead!

What the hell had he been thinking?!

But that was just it. He _hadn't_ been thinking. He had just lashed out, blind fear robbing him of his sensibilities and causing him to treat everyone as an enemy.

Finally opening his eyes, Izuku tried to sit up, but his left arm was wrenched back by his wrist. "What the…" he tugged his arm, taking note of the padded restraint chaining him to the bed. "Really," he asked incredulously. "Oh, come on!"

He reached over with his free hand, feeling around the perfectly smooth cuff. No latch. No keyhole. No indentations. Nothing.

It must have been made around his wrist.

But the chain, on the other hand… that was too easy to tear apart like tissue paper, the links wrenched open and dropped onto the bed. The cuff, though... Maybe he could just wear the cuff like a high fashion piece of jewelry? Should be fine.

Freed from his restraints, Izuku slung his legs over the side of the bed, setting his feet on the floor.

He was still wearing his shoes and his uniform; he couldn't have been here that long. With a glance to the clock, he blinked rapidly.

An hour and a half after lunch.

He had been here for an hour and a half?!

Izuku jumped up, taking a few quick strides to the door and finding it locked.

"Damn it," he muttered, turning away to look for another exit.

The window.

Keeping an eye out for anyone who might interrupt him, Izuku pushed the bed he had been chained to until it was under the tiny window. Climbing up to stand on the mattress, Izuku checked the window.

Small, but he could get through it.

Locked, but only by a latch.

Too easy. It was laughable.

Pulling himself up and through the frame, he twisted around to drop down on all fours, only to be caught by a pair of familiar arms before he hit the ground.

"Huh?!" Izuku twisted around, he really hadn't expected All Might to be outside of the window.

"I told them you'd go out the window." Toshinori shook his head, and if anyone were looking close enough, they would see him roll his eyes. "For some reason, they didn't believe me…"

"Dad?!" Izuku squeaked, his black eyes wide with surprise. "I mean- I- damnit." A sudden stroke of clarity hit him.

The thoughts from the crowd that didn't belong.

He grabbed the fabric of All Might's cape, where it was attached at the shoulder of his suit, "I have something important to tell you!"

"But first…" Izuku's vision wavered and spun, and a familiar grey haze swept over his brain. "I'm going to pass out." He slumped over on All Might's shoulder, going limp in his surrogate father's arms.

"Oh!" Toshinori only stared in shock, not expecting that to happen. "Wow, he really did it." He adjusted Izuku to carry him easier before rounding the corner of the building.

Leaning against the wall, watching him expectantly, were Eraserhead and Midnight, the two heroes openly staring as how All Might carried the kid. Toshinori wasn't a mind reader, but he swore that he could hear the questions they had for him.

Breaking the awkward silence, Aizawa cleared his throat. Not moving from where he leaned, he asked, "did I hear what I think I heard?" His hair fell in his eyes, hiding the look of curiosity.

"You sure did," Midnight answered, crossing her arms over her chest. She raised an eyebrow, wondering if her hypothesis was correct. "He called you 'dad?'"

When All Might stayed quiet, Aizawa scuffed his boots on the ground, pulling up a few blades of grass. "So," he muttered, the single word somehow carrying through the tenseness. He gestured to the kid passed out in the number one hero's arms. "Is he yours?"

Toshinori shook his head, finally finding his voice again. He unconsciously adjusted his grip on his- _no, not his,_ the kid, as if he was afraid someone would take him away. "N-no, he's not." His eyebrows drew together, memories of all the time he and Izuku had spent together. _Just like a father and son should,_ he thought before stomping those ideas back down. "But is it wrong to wish he was?"

"I don't know your life," Nemuri began, before she shook her head, the glasses of her hero costume sliding down her nose. "But man, you and Midoriya got real problems in it, don't you?"

"Mhm." Aizawa nodded once, leaning back against the wall with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. "He sure does."

* * *

"God damn it." Izuku didn't even need to look around to know he was back in Recovery Girl's office. At least he wasn't cuffed to the bed this time.

"Oh, you're awake!" The voice is pitched highly, with an… inhuman aspect to it. As if it's not meant to be heard or spoken. "You gave us all quite a scare, young man."

Izuku opened his eyes, catching a ball of fur and bone in his peripheral vision. Thankful that the flat black of his eyes couldn't betray where he was looking, Izuku focused his gaze, trying to sort out what he was looking at before he realized what it was. He saw hundreds of them scurrying in pipes and underground tunnels every day, how could he _not_ know?

A rat.

A _giant_ rat. The biggest rat of all time. His thoughts spiraled, all keeping in the vein of _rat, huge rat, oh my god, the biggest rat._

A rat whose fur looks super soft and whose thoughts scrambled and shuffled and completed and broke apart and came to gather faster than anything he had ever heard before.

It was terrifying. How purely inhuman they were. And underneath it all, the rhythm, the near song that all rats seemed to live within.

He had never heard it with words before.

Haunting.

Using his elbows, Izuku sat up, staring for a moment before it clicked.

Principal Nedzu and All Might were sitting in Recovery Girl's office with him, drinking tea, and watching him sleep. Well, not watching him sleep, waiting for him to wake up. But same thing, right?

"Thanks?" His voice was rough, his throat dry and scratchy. There was a glass of water on the table beside the bed, and he reached for it slowly, ignoring the burn of being watched. Taking a drink, he felt the tension in the room mount, then swiftly dissipate before he finished off the glass.

Setting the glass back aside and clearing his throat, Izuku pushed his hair from his face, keeping his gaze low as he looked around for his sunglasses.

Finding them folded on the pile of his uniform blazer and shirt, he left them there, unable to reach them without standing. "S-sorry for being so…" he gestured vaguely with both hands, trying to convey the concept of throwing tables and chairs at his teachers. "Sorry for being out of it. I had, had a bad night," he finished weakly, hanging his head.

"No need to feel sorry," Nedzu began, only to be interrupted by All Might.

"Are you alright? Did you get enough sleep? Is the cat back?"

Nedzu turned in his seat, a curious look on his pointed face. _Cat?_

Izuku sighed, rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes with the back of his hand. "I'm fine, just… nightmares."

Toshinori frowned, "you've been having nightmares?" _Why wouldn't you tell me?_

"Not _my_ nightmares," Izuku clarified, unable to raise his gaze from where his hands rested on his knees. "My mothers."

A part of himself was ashamed of how poorly he had dealt with it, turning to medications he knew would barely work in a desperate attempt to get sleep.

He knew Inko couldn't control her nightmares, no one could, he just wished he didn't take the starring role.

As the villain. The monster. The twisted and vile thing creeping in the dark, doing sick and depraved things.

All Might went quiet, before he asked, far too softly, "Midoriya, what did she do?" _If she hurt you, I- I don't know what I'd do._

Izuku shook his head, trying to calm his mentor and father figure's thoughts. "Nothing, it's nothing like that." Inko would never actively try to harm him, she _couldn't._ She might not seek out his presence, but she didn't _hate_ him.

But he did wonder sometimes…

She was good at keeping her thoughts to herself. Too good at it for it to be a coincidence. Maybe she… no, as much as he wanted to assume to worst, he just couldn't.

Things were getting better. At least, he _thought_ things were getting better.

"...what did she say," Toshinori tried and failed to smother the protective feeling in his chest. The thought of Izuku having to go through more trauma, having to live with someone who didn't treat him the way they should? He _hated_ it. Maybe he could convince the kid to live with him?

Would that be possible?

Not wanting to get into all of that right now, Izuku tried to wave away All Might's concern, "it's not her fault, she can't control her nightmares. I just wish it wasn't me that gives them to her." He shook his head, closing his eyes and trying to find memories of better times.

He couldn't.

"I wish she didn't just see a monster every time she looks at me."

 _She still thinks that?_ Toshinori narrowed his eyes, making a mental note to check in on his kid more often. "I thought things had gotten better?"

"Yeah, so did I." Izuku sighed, rubbing at the scars on his knuckles. He had nearly doubled the amount of scars there during the entrance exam, and Inko hadn't even asked about it. He needed to face the facts. "Looks like I was just kidding myself." Again.

He had wanted so badly for things to be getting better, he just-

A rustle of fur on fabric brought Izuku back to reality. He could see that Nedzu had been trying his damndest not to make a sound, to not interrupt the moment.

 _So they went on with Project Bloodlines, didn't they. But it wasn't finished. He's incomplete._

"I know," Izuku muttered, almost missing the sudden raising of the fur on the back of the principal's neck. "I'm… unfinished." Izuku clenched a fist, eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the bones and tendons that were beyond his comprehension. "The last three procedures," the replacement bone marrow, the last layers of artificial muscle, the _control chip,_ he had escaped before they were placed. "I never got them," he finished flatly, knowing those four words couldn't contain the volumes of meaning he had lived.

 _So he_ _ **can**_ _hear me. Intriguing._

"Am I?" Izuku shook his head. Intriguing wasn't the word he would use.

Creepy. Weirdo. Anxious. Awkward. Twitchy. Paranoid. Unsettling.

Those were words he would use.

A moment passed where none of them spoke, and before the silence could stretch on, Izuku interrupted it. "School is over, isn't it?"

Nedzu nodded, watching Izuku with curious eyes. "Yes."

"...great. I'll have to take the late train," Izuku grumbled, before he jerked back upright, his back ramrod straight, worry coursing through his veins. "The media!" He remembered what he had heard, that thought that cut through all the rest like a scalpel. "It was a villain attack!"

"Yes, I assumed so," Nedzu said calmly, the twitching of his ears giving away his worry.

"They're targeting All Might," Izuku continued, not missing the worry and interest that spiked through the thoughts of All Might and Nedzu, respectively. "I think it's going to be an attack on the school."

"Oh?" If Nedzu had eyebrows, he would raise them. He stabilized his cup of tea with both paws, wishing he had set it aside before Midoriya had woken up. "And why is that?"

Izuku blinked slowly, dry eyes staring past Nedzu and All Might. "Because that's what I would do," he said flatly.

Toshinori wheezed in surprise, blood coating his hand as he tried to stop the sound. "What?!"

Scratching harder at the scars on his knuckles, Izuku explained, "if my directive was to take out a high profile target, especially a hero, I would make sure there are as many civilians and children around as possible. Not for hostages, or collateral damage, but to ensure the target is distracted and unable to run." He frowned, putting more thought into it. A villain attack on UA and All Might would have to be huge, wouldn't it? "Keep them from being able to go on the offense by having a comrade threaten a kid." He would also make sure that it was in an urban area to keep the fight controlled, prevent them from fighting at full strength for fear of damages.

"I… okay." _Sure. That's fine, put a lot of thought into how to murder me? Cool. Great. I'll sleep_ _ **so**_ _well tonight!_

"No, what?!" Izuku's eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment. "Why would I plan- I'm not planning to kill you, why would you think that?" He gestured vaguely with both hands, trying to aid his explanation.

"Because it sure sounds like you've thought of it," Toshinori sounded almost… disappointed? Disapproving? Dismayed?

All of the above?

Izuku couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, but he pressed on with it. "Oh. No, that's just common sense, right?" At least, that's what the specialists who worked alongside the doctors would say… He was just rational, right? That's what they all told him.

 _ **(You're rational, meant for great things. A future leader.)**_

 _ **(a good soldier)**_

 _ **(a general)**_

Maybe it wasn't common sense. Maybe it was the training. The military education and reeducation.

Maybe most people _didn't_ spend as much time as he did thinking over countermeasures for their own friends and families quirks.

Was _this_ why Inko was so scared of him? Because she knew how his mind worked now?

Was _that_ why they had given him this fucked up body and mind? They had wanted him to lead the others in the project?

Almost as if he could sense that Izuku was spiraling, Nedzu cleared his throat with a startlingly squeaky noise. "Well, you're right, that is just common sense." _If you're like me._ Nedzu's brow furrowed, the fur covering most evidence of the expression. "Did you get any… sense of when this attack might happen?"

"No, but whoever it was, they were," Izuku frowned, trying to find the right words. "Bat shit crazy?"

 _Were those the right words?_

 _Okay, great, a crazy guy wants to kill me. Fan-fucking-tastic._

"I mean, you'd have to be crazy to think you could take out All Might, right?" Izuku shook his head, but a thought made him freeze in place. "...unless they actually think they _could_ do it…" Did they know about All Might's injury? Did they know he was losing time?

Izuku's black eyes went wide. One person would know.

"Um, Y-Yagi-san? Do you think this might be tied to," Izuku lowered his voice to barely above a whisper and leaned in close. "All for One?"

 _Could it be? They never found the body…_

 _No… I_ _ **killed**_ _him! He can't-he can't be out there still. Then this injury, that battle, was it all for nothing?_

"Shit." Toshinori hung his head, guilt and shame burning in his chest. He had thought he had been a killer for so long, had had to live with thinking that, even if All for One was a monster, he had fought to kill and had thought he _had._ But it looked like All for One had wone that fight as well. "I had thought, had _hoped,_ all the rumours were just that. But if All for One is still out there… we're in for a real mess."

Just the _thought_ of All for One was enough to rekindle that hatred he thought the battle had burned away. If he fought him again… Toshinori didn't care what happened, as _long as that bastard died._

"I care what happens," Izuku said, not missing the flinch of surprise All Might felt when he said that. "If you get killed trying to fight a mad man…" Izuku didn't know what he would do. "I'll kill you myself."

"And you know how to do it, too."

"Hey, well, okay, fair." Izuku shook his head, slowly sliding forward and off the bed, the mounting emotional tension in the room leaving him _needing_ the security of his sunglasses. His hands shook as he picked up the black plastic, covering his eyes before he stumbled back to sit on the bed. "Security is going to need to be upped, but it can't be obvious," he said, changing the subject in the hopes it would stop the panicked thoughts of losing the closest thing he had to a father.

"A few extra teachers here and there, and as much as I hate machines, maybe some of the robots from the entrance exam wherever All Might is?" Izuku grinned, the expression nothing but bared teeth and black sunglasses, "those things _can_ be set to more… dangerous levels," he asked, raising his eyebrows and hoping Nedzu understood.

 _Oh, he wants killbots?_ Nedzu understood. "Of course, Power Loader should be delighted with such a request!" _Well, more horrified and crying, but yes, delighted!_

Izuku snorted, "I know that it's a bunch of political nonsense that's going to keep you from being able to do more, but maybe a, uh," he snapped his fingers searching for the word. "GPS trackers?"

"Oh, smart…" Nedzu would grin if he was able to. This kid had nothing to boost his intelligence, but here he was, planning like he had done this his whole life. "And if the signal was lost at any point, converge on the location with full force."

"Exactly."

"Well, this is nerve-wracking and terrifying, and every negative emotion all at once, but I have to go, I'm supposed to be training Toogata today." Toshinori stood, making his way to the door, but he pulled Izuku into a hug that, for anyone else, would have been bone-crushing. Ruffling his hand through the kid's hair, Toshinori turned to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

Izuku just nodded, not trusting himself with words right now.

Once the door closed, Nedzu scooted his chair closer, watching the child that reminds him so much of himself. Even through the thick black plastic of the sunglasses, he could feel the intensity of the kids' dry stare.

But he still had a question, even though he knew Midoriya could just pluck it from his mind with no trace of doing so. "Do you know what I am, Midoriya?"

Izuku takes a moment to answer, thinking over his words. He could just parrot back what Nedzu knew, but that wasn't what he was asking, was it? "A, uh, a few decades ago, there was this drug that enhanced quirks. Before Trigger. Before Jolt. They called it JumpStart. But it had mutagenic effects, causing gigantism and other deformation." Most people didn't remember JumpStart. But Izuku wasn't most people. "It was before your freedom from the lab, wasn't it."

 _Fascinating._

"You were the first, weren't you?" JumpStart had been a favored topic in the Hospital, and Izuku could still remember the doctors and scientists talking about 'subject Alpha,' and now much the description made more sense for an animal than a human. He had never thought they might be talking about the principal of UA.

Nedzu blinked, "you really know your stuff, don't you?" _So you know what I am, but what are you, Midoriya Izuku?_

"I'm nobody," Izuku answered, standing off the bed and turning to the door. Picking up his uniform and backpack and putting on his shoes, Izuku nodded back to the watching principal. "And I'd like to keep it that way for a little bit longer."


	14. Chapter 14

The sun is heading down by the time Izuku unlocks the front door, but he's alone in the apartment. He needs to be alone right now.

Leaving his shoes at the door and his folded uniform and backpack on the couch, he sighs. And as he moves through the unnaturally cold rooms, he stops before he can open his door.

Inko's room, the door is open. She must not have closed it…

Curiosity fueled by something Izuku doesn't understand pushes him forward, and he makes up his mind.

She's always hiding things from him, doesn't he deserve some answers?

He pushes the door open, entering a room he hasn't been in for… he can't even remember. He hasn't been in here since the move.

The smell should be familiar, but it just feels cold. He looks around, trying to figure out what drew him here.

Turning around, something on the desk catches his attention.

"Paperwork" is scrawled on the manila folder in his mother's handwriting, but something about it seems off. Like it doesn't belong there. Stepping forward, he opened the folder and immediately stumbled backward.

Staring back up at him is his own photograph, back when he was just a kid. He must have been only eight in it, even though the mottled greys are all he can see, he can tell that his eyes still held color.

He still had hopes and dreams. He was _normal._

Forcing himself to step back up, he turned the photograph over, only to feel like he should have stayed back when he read the next header, then a mass of legalese. But what it boiled down to was simple.

 _Project Bloodlines Permissions_

 _Parent Signature:_

 ** _Midoriya Hisashi_**

The signature looked… wrong somehow. As if it had been written too carefully, too slowly. Izuku's heart dropped when he saw the second signature and he understood what was wrong.

 _Parent Signature:_

 ** _Midoriya Inko_**

The two signatures were nearly identical. One of them had to be a forgery. And since his father had left two years before the paperwork was signed...

Inko had… she had signed him into the program without letting his dad know? She had put him through this, hoping he would get a quirk, even after she had let his dreams be crushed back when he was only five? Did she care about him, or only about the possible quirk?

Had she known what they planned for him?

...did she care?

Izuku's breathing was erratic, and he broke into a cold sweat.

Had she ever cared?

Taking the folder in hand, he turned to leave, but something else caught his eye.

A box is hidden behind the desk, but the fact that it's hidden isn't what catches his attention.

It's what's inside it.

Letters. Packages. _Hundreds_ of letters.

He set the folder back on the desk and kneeled down. And when he leans in closer, pulls back the flaps of the box, his heart all but stops in his chest.

Every single letter is addressed to him. Not to his alias, not to his po box in Hosu, but to _him._

His real name, his address.

With shaking fingers, he picks up the one on top, dated only a few days ago and he tears open the envelope.

 _Izuku,_

 _I know you haven't responded to any of these, but I've got to try, right?_

 _I saw on the hero school forums that you made it into UA! I'm so proud of you! I know, an old man like me still reads hero forums? Don't remind me, hah!_

 _I wish I could be there to congratulate you in person, but your mother…_

 _I don't know how much she tells you about me, but I'm working at Hosu University now, teaching Quirk History._

 _It's a little weird having all those kids calling me 'professor,' but I'm getting used to it-_

Izuku dropped the letter, his chest hurting from some suppressed feeling. He dug down in the box, finding an older envelope, and he pulls out its letter.

 _Hey Izuku!_

 _It's me, your dad, duh, again._

 _...I know you probably don't want to hear from me, I've said the same thing so many times, but I'm sorry._

 _You're what, eight now? And I haven't been there for any of it…_

 _I could have been, but it was all my own fault. I'm sorry-_

Another letter, even older, this one is water-stained, the paper wrinkled and bunched in places. He touched the paper lightly, it felt crisp with age and yellowed at the edges. From the date, it's only a few days after his father had left. He can almost feel the regret embedded in the paper fibers.

 _Izuku._

 _I'm sorry._

 _I'm so sorry._

 _I never should have said that to you._

 _I never should have_ _thought_ _it!_

 _I know you probably don't want to hear from me, and that's okay._

 _I know I'm a bad dad, and you don't have to write back._

 _I'm so sorry._

 _You're not a burden, you're my son, and I love you!_

 _You're not useless just because you're quirkless, you're amazing, you're brave, and you never even thought of giving up on being a hero_

 _Izuku, I'm so sorry, you're the best thing that ever happened to me, you're the reason I pushed myself to finish college, to find a better job, I just wanted to give you a better life, and I threw it all away._

 _You're not a burden, Izuku. Please, never forget that._

 _You can remember me as a bad dad, whatever you want, but always remember that you're amazing._

 _You don't need a quirk to be a hero._

 _-_ _-_ _dad,_ _Hisashi_

Izuku dropped the letter into his lap, unable to move from where he was kneeling.

All this time… his father had been apologizing, had been trying to keep in contact, and Inko had just… never told him.

Those letters are more effort than Inko had _ever_ put into mending their relationship.

His chest hurts, a pain he's never felt before. It's icy, and it's as if it's carving out his heart.

Despair.

His shoulders heave with dry sobs, and he clamps a hand over his mouth as he blinks rapidly, the phantom pain of tears carving down his cheeks.

The agony of what could have been.

* * *

Izuku knows he shouldn't be on the streets this late, but he can't sleep, and the coffee in his hands isn't helping.

After what he found, he needs... _something,_ he just doesn't know what.

Answers. He needs answers to any question.

His world has been flipped off of its axis and revolves around a new sun, he just needs _something_ to make sense again!

Ducking his head as the streetlights click on, he crosses the street, stopping outside the gate of the house across from the apartment complex. Keeping a wary eye on his surroundings, Izuku pushed open the gate and headed to the front door.

The person inside was still awake, their surface thoughts on an odd language randomly interrupted by Japanese. He caught a few words, _yakuza, conspiracy, town full of villains,_ and a troubling _cat,_ between what was sounding more and more like Russian.

This was irrational and frankly, stupid, but he had to know the answer to the mystery of the cat. Something needed to be explained.

With a glance behind him, Izuku knocked on the door, trying his best to not dent the metal. Okay, who has a metal door and is doing good things? Was this man a mobster? A Russian gangster?

"Zdravstvuyte?" A dark shadowed eclipsed all light from the house, a massive man with an impassive face looking down at Izuku. The man answering the door blinks, correcting himself, "oh. Hello?" _Ty che blyad?_

Izuku stared up at the man, marveling slightly at their sheer size before he cleared his throat. "What's the deal with your cat?"

 _Koshka?_ Taking a moment to process Izuku's question, the man froze. "Oh, Behemoth?" The man laughs, a knowing look in his eyes. "I've been expecting you to come ask about him." The man stepped aside, letting the massive cat step past him and out the door. "He's been watching you for a while," he said, and Izuku didn't know who he was talking to, and if he was talking about the cat, or about him. The man closed the door once the cat was inside, and his thoughts moved away from the door, deeper into the house.

They really didn't care what the two would do while he was gone.

The cat, far too large and with familiar black eyes, climbed onto the high wall and stared down at him. A voice reverberated through Izuku's mind, shaking him to the core.

 _Ah, the human spawnling._

Izuku whipped his head around, searching for the source of the thoughts. "Wh, wha, was that you?" The thoughts had obviously been directed to him, but he hadn't _read_ them, they had passed through him.

 _It can hear me. Intriguing._

"You can understand Japanese," Izuku asked, his mind racing. An animal with a Quirk! Just what kind of quirk was it? Was it intelligence enhancing?

But the cat's animalistic mind was almost impossible to search through, and Izuku just gave up, unable to make heads or tails of the nonsense.

 _I can understand many things. Your human language is far too easy._ The cat yawned widely, showing off too many razor-sharp teeth to be natural.

"What's your name?"

 _What is the point of a name? Once they called me Subject Zeta, that human calls me Behemoth, and I call myself nothing. I simply AM. The_ Cat narrowed its eyes, fixing Izuku with a quizzical expression. _And what of you?_

"They called me… Subject Fifteen." Izuku bit his lip, "I call myself Izuku."

 _Izuku?_ The Cat gestured with a paw out to the city, then to the apartment complex behind them. _And what do_ ** _they_** _call you?_

"They… they call me freak." His eyes slid shut when he thought about all the layers of lies. "And she… calls me monster."

 _But you are no monster. You and I, we know monsters._ The Cat seemed to sigh, and Izuku understood.

JumpStart. Project Bloodlines.

Nedzu, the Cat, himself.

It still affected all of them.

The Cat's tail swished, and it settled back on its haunches. _Humans call us things because they fear us._ The Cat narrowed its black eyes, _you fear me, yes?_

"I did… still do?" The Cat was terrifying. It's mind singular, different than a human, different than Nedzu, different than any other he had felt.

Expansive and unnatural. Like gazing into the abyss as it gazed into you.

 _Fear is natural. Healthy. But don't lose yourself to it._ The Cat stood, tapping Izuku's forehead with one massive paw. _Your mother returns soon. We will speak again, Izuku._

Izuku watched as the Cat, something much less terrifying than he had once thought, silently dropped down from the wall and sauntered back to the front door of the house, leaning on it until it popped open. The door closed behind it, and Izuku could tell that the cat had simply kicked it closed with a back paw.

An animal with a quirk had been living right under his nose, and he hadn't even noticed it!

Part of him wanted to ask the Cat if it wanted to meet Nedzu, but the thought of a giant cat meeting a giant rat… probably not the best idea.

He turned to leave, remembering what the Cat had said.

His mother would be home soon, and they had a lot to talk about.

* * *

Izuku was settled on the couch long before Inko opened the front door. There was only one thing on his mind now. The letters.

The box had been carried into the living room, and he had read a few more of them before the overwhelming regret swept through him. He couldn't keep doing this, it was breaking him.

Hisashi, his _father,_ had been pouring his heart out on the page each and every time, and Izuku couldn't even remember the last time Inko had told him she loved him. Couldn't remember the last time she had _thought_ it.

When the door popped open, Izuku stared ahead of himself, unable to focus on a single point. "Inko, why don't you sit down, we need to talk." He gestured to the other end of the couch, hand trembling.

"Huh, give me a minute," Inko passed him, heading into the kitchen with a bag full of groceries. Enough for a week, and that's it. She never bought more than that.

Izuku didn't wait for Inko to sit before he asked, "...when were you going to tell me that dad was writing?"

"Oh." Inko exited the kitchen stiffly, sitting on the opposite end of the couch, hands clasped in her lap as she looked everywhere but at her son. "You found the letters."

"I found _everything,"_ Izuku hissed, slamming his hand onto the folder on the table, splintering the wood underneath the lies. "How did you keep this from me?"

"I thought if you knew… you would tell him," she said quietly, reaching for Izuku's hand, stroking her thumb over the layers of scars on his knuckles.

"Tell him _what?"_

"About your…" Inko looked away, pulling her hand back and biting her lip. _I was trying to protect you!_

"Who were you trying to protect, really?" Slowly, he turned to watch Inko from behind his dark lenses. "Me? Or yourself," he asked as if he didn't already know the answer to that question.

She did all of this for herself.

He used to think he understood his mother. Inko was different. She still couldn't bring herself to care about the unnatural thing that wore her son's skin and used his voice like a toy.

"I don't know who you are anymore," Inko began, wringing her hands.

"Did you ever," Izuku spat back, glaring from behind black lenses. His shoulders shook, not with sobs, but with rage.

His fingernails dug into the palm of his hand until thick grey blood began to ooze between his fingers.

 _You're being careless, Izuku._ Inko sighed, her gaze flitting away from her son's hands and landing on his face. She looked away again. Her fingers twisted in the hem of her shirt, worrying the fabric as she continued. "You need to be more careful, okay? If you keep getting hurt like this, someones going to find out and talk about your," Inko lowered her voice, all but whispering now. "Your condition."

"Do you really care," Izuku asked flatly, unable to hide the cringe at Inko's word choice. It wasn't a _condition,_ there was nothing _wrong_ with him. He just wished Inko could see that instead of just feeling sorry for him.

She was the one who let this happen to him! She was the one who signed the paperwork and made him into a monster!

Izuku's hands contracted into fists, his entire body shaking with withheld wrath.

Inko looked at Izuku with a shocked expression undercut with guilt. Her fingers twisted her shirt faster as she looked away from Izuku once again. "Of course I care, you're my _son!"_

Izuku lowered his head, his hands clawing into the fabric of his pants. The words began spilling out of him, things he had been thinking about ever since the two of them had started to try and repair their relationship. "For the last two years, you just didn't care, I know things are changing, but I don't need you to try and control every bit of my life."

The words, 'I don't need you to help me,' went unsaid, but not unheard, and they hung there, like heavy smoke in the air. Acrid and cloying. He kept his gaze on his knees, shoulders shaking as his throat felt as if he had swallowed a sharp, hot stone, and it was gouging its way down his throat.

"What, Izuku, no." Inko gently took ahold of Izuku's hand once again, but this time Izuku shook her hand off of his own. "Please, just give me a chance to try and help! I don't want you to not trust me to be there for you."

"But do you really _want_ to be there?" Izuku's hands were clenched into tight, shaking fists, and he stood, knees weak and threatening to let him drop to the floor. "You never cared before when I was coming home with a black eye nearly every week." He shook his head, his hair falling over his face as he did. He swallowed, the action painful as he tried to swallow his anguish and anger back down and failed. "You never cared when my nightmares kept me awake every night."

He couldn't stop himself, his bottled resentment finally bubbling over now that the pressure was too much to contain.

"You never cared when I was clawing at my own skin, trying to dig out the monster in me!" Izuku slapped his hand over his heart, memories of blood dripping down his arm and fingertips, skin wedged under his fingernails. "You even got a second job, so you wouldn't have to spend time with me!" His fingers twisted in the material of his shirt, and he swore he could feel the heat of his frustration boiling under his skin. "Why should you care now?!"

Izuku growled, his voice twisting as words he had longed to say flowed out like venom. "Is it because it's public? Is it because villains might have been involved? Tell me, damnit!"

Inko's hands flew up to cover her face, stray tears leaking over her fingers. She couldn't say anything. She couldn't say anything because she knew that Izuku was right. For two years, she had barely cared about her son, only leaving him enough money to keep a stocked kitchen and first aid kit.

She hadn't told him that she loved him for over two years. Maybe it was too late to even try.

 _Maybe I don't love him anymore._

"Why didn't you care," Izuku repeated, voice quiet and brittle as a dead leaf in the winter. He just wanted an answer to a question he had wanted to ask for two years.

"Izuku, I-" _He's right. You've been a terrible mother. Your own son hates you, and he's right to do so._

"...I don't hate you," he whispered, immediately regretting every damn word he had let out of the locked box in the back of his mind. Even if they were all the truth, he regretted it. Izuku took a panicked step back, breath erratic, and his hands pulled at his curly hair. His heart hammered in his chest, and his cheeks burned with shame. "I, I, I'm sor-

Izuku fell silent, unable to force the meaningless apology from his lips. Turning and running down the hallway, he slammed his bedroom door behind him, rattling the doorframe and the walls around it. His back to the door, he slid down it to the floor, drawing his knees up to his chest and pressing his hands over his eyes until they stung with sharp dry pain.

He tried to block it out, but his mother's thoughts still rang in his mind, clear as a bell.

 _I'm so sorry, Izuku. I'm so sorry._

 _I wish I could love you the way you deserve. I wish I had loved you in the first place._

He didn't sleep that night.

How could he, after what he had said, screamed, those words at his mother? He wished he hadn't meant it, the words had just come pouring out after being locked away for so long. But instead of trying to apologize, he had run away like a damn coward.

And Inko… she had just gone to bed without a word, her thoughts full of bitter regret as she fell asleep while blaming herself for Izuku's outburst. But Izuku only blamed himself, he had let his emotions fester for far too long.

Sure, Inko wasn't actually trying to fix things, Izuku couldn't help but feel like but was somehow his fault.

As if he wasn't putting in enough effort from his end. Maybe he didn't really want to fix things. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed.

He just wished this wasn't as good as it was going to get. Wished he didn't already know what he had to do next.

Izuku stared up through the ceiling, not even able to see the stars with his damned eyes. His covers were pulled up to his chin, but he still felt icy cold down to his bones. With a shiver, he sat up, looking through the wall and watching his mother sleep, breaths even, her dreaming mind free from the worries Izuku had loaded on her less than eight hours ago.

She let herself forget, or maybe she just didn't care enough to remember.

He closed his eyes, hoping he could block out the image that kept replaying over in his mind. His mother's face and her expression of devastated guilt. Izuku wasn't sure he would ever be able to scrub that memory from his mind, no matter how hard he tried.

Couldn't forget how she didn't love him.

Moving from the center of his bed where he sat, he slung his legs over the side, socked feet touching on hardwood flooring, the cold of the concrete and rebar beneath soaking through the wood and into his skin. Stepping forward, he stumbled, his toes catching on the ankle of his other foot, and he caught himself with the corner his desk before he could crash onto the floor and wake Inko from her rest.

He took the blanket from his bed and wrapped it around himself, hoping the thickness of the blanket would maybe keep him warm against his own icy armor.

He would go to the garden, but it doesn't feel _right_ to use it as an escape from this.

Inko doesn't love him. And from the way she thought, she never had.

In the kitchen, Izuku brought a pot of water to a boil, knowing coffee wouldn't give him what he needed right now. He didn't need to sleep.

He just needed to focus. Needed to make a plan. He obviously couldn't live here anymore, but where would he go?

Mindlessly, he went through the motions of making tea, the action driven by muscle memory more than intent.

He settled down on the couch, the springs creaking in protest to his weight. Izuku set the warm metal thermos on the cracked table in front of the couch, small drops of tea running down the surface and staining the cracks. Usually, he would be waking up right about now, but he hadn't even managed to fall asleep in the first place.

Guilt has a way of eating at you.

Leaning back into the couch's overly soft cushions, Izuku tried to clear his head. He had gotten used to falling asleep with fear. Fear was familiar to him, it was sharp against his nerves, a prickling staticky sensation that was uncomfortably warm with spikes of searing heat. But guilt was different; it had a weight to it; it merely pressed down, cold and unrelenting, a smooth surface like glass as it reflected your sins.

Based on how his stomach churned, filled with acid, it really does eat at you.

Izuku gritted his teeth and sat back up straight, standing and taking his tea back to his room. He sat at his desk and picked up a pen and paper.

 _Dear_ _dad._

 _Father._

 _Hisashi._

 _It's been a long time, hasn't it?_


End file.
